Kariya's Legacy
by Born of Prayers
Summary: Summary: Due to a chance meeting with Kariya before the events of Fate/Zero, Shinji strives to follow in his uncle's footsteps and save Sakura from damnation of the Matou Clan. To do so, he must make many sacrifices and will endure pain like no other to compete in the next Holy Grail War, including becoming a Spellcaster—all for Sakura's sake. An AU Fate Stay Night story.
1. Prologue

**Prologue: Shinji Matou, Spellcaster**

**Summary:** Due to a chance meeting with Kariya before the events of Fate/Zero, Shinji strives to follow in his uncle's footsteps and save Sakura from damnation of the Matou Clan. To do so, he must make many sacrifices and will endure pain like no other to compete in the next Holy Grail War, including becoming a Spellcaster—all for Sakura's sake.

* * *

_Before the 4__th__ Holy Grail War_

Shinji Matou should have been in bed that night, slumbering before his flight out of the country to study abroad. But he couldn't sleep. It was a small thing—just a bit of anticipation and fright before he went far away and would leave his home, his grandfather, his father, and his new sister, Sakura.

He was her big brother now and soon to be the head of the Matou house. The head had to look after the youngest, so he opened his arms and accepted her, a stranger, into their home. He took that quiet girl and showed her around the house, teaching her how things worked since she was new here.

Despite what he said, Shinji had kinda gotten to like Sakura over the last year or so. He simply showed it in a different way. Sure he picked on her occasionally, but that was because it showed her he noticed her.

Not like his grandfather, who ignored him for the most part. Or his dad, more so lately since he had started drinking even more than usual. He didn't know what happened to his mother, only the fact that she died.

Seeking to remedy the lack of sleep, he decided to get a glass of milk from the kitchen and made his way down the Matou estate to do so, passing by the floor where the family head's study would be. He wasn't allowed in it yet, nor the basement, but once he became the head when he was older he could go wherever he wanted. Entering the kitchen, he froze as he saw someone there. Who was this pale, ugly man who trespassed in their home?

"Ah…" said the man in a raspy voice, after a long and arduous breath. "Shinji? I see you've…gotten bigger than the pictures I'd seen…"

That voice sounded familiar to Shinji, on he heard over the phone arguing with his father. Taking a guess, he said, "Uncle Kariya?"

The man nodded weakly, making his way over to a chair. "Yeah, it's me."

"What happened to you?" Shinji asked. He only saw his uncle in photos, but he didn't look like this.

"Oh…" he froze, trying to think of what to say. Shinji didn't know about the Matou magus line just yet, if they ever planned on telling him. The kid didn't realize how lucky he had it. "This…was the price I paid for power. Is Sakura around?"

"She's asleep," Shinji said.

"I see…" Kariya let out a pained sigh and sat down the chair, his head leaned back with the hood of his parka covering his eyes. "Ah…I could use something to drink…"

"Let me get it," Shinji said, going to the refrigerator and opening it. Looking at the contents, he pulled out a bottle of water and placed in front of his uncle.

"Thank you," he said, before quietly drinking it down.

Shinji watched him while pulling at the bangs of his hair. He wanted to try and gather up the courage to ask what he always wanted to know. His father and grandfather (whenever he saw the old man) seemed to dislike him. "Why did you leave the family? Dad always complains that you should be the one to be the heir…"

It boggled young Shinji's mind that someone would turn down the wealth of the Matou home, being one of the oldest families with ties everywhere in Fuyuki. They had hundreds years of history in this land. What about their family name was so bad that the one who should have been the next family had ran away and forsaken it?

"Byakuya said that, huh?" Kariya let out what sounded like a mad laugh before sighing again. "I imagine living as your grandfather's puppet has left him a shell of a man. He should have followed in my footsteps and left this place behind, even if it meant becoming a pauper. Maybe then he could've lived a life with you and your mother away from all this and let the Matou name fall into oblivion like it should."

Shinji blinked. "But…why did you leave?"

"Pray you never find out," Kariya told him. After a moment of looking at his nephew and seeing a younger, innocent version of his brother, he said, "The Matou Clan has many dark, disgusting secrets, Shinji. To be the head means to learn them all and endure the suffering that comes with it. Your father's drinking came from those secrets, and my body is breaking because of them as well. I came back so Sakura could be freed from those secrets and suffering."

"What do you mean?" Shinji asked as he sat in a chair across from the man. His little sister was suffering? He just thought she was quiet. As the one looking out for her, he should know these things.

"Tell me Shinji," he said with a rasp. "What do you see when you look at her?"

Sakura was weird since he had known her. "She's quiet and…empty. It's creepy."

"She wasn't always like that," Kariya said, his lips trembling. "She was outgoing, like her mother, Aoi Tohsaka, only for that to be snuffed out in three days time."

_So her original last name was Tohsaka…_Shinji thought. He never did learn who Sakura was before she got here. He never thought much about it. "You knew her mother?"

"I…was in love with her mother," he said. "I wanted her to be happy, so I left her with someone I thought she could be happy with. I wanted her to be happy no matter what and so I bowed out and left to get away from the old vampire's plans and risk sentencing her to the same fate as your mother."

Shinji noted the man's features growing darker with rage, his hand crushing the bottle so that the remaining water surged out and washed over his quaking hand. "Then I learned that Sakura's bastard of a father abandoned her to Zouken!"

Kariya started coughing violently and Shinji was afraid for the man's health...and kinda scared, but he wouldn't admit that. "U-uncle?"

Kariya took several deep breaths and calmed his soul. "Shinji…I'm going off to fight for her. If I don't make it back…"

Shinji swallowed in anticipation at the words that he seemed to be struggling to say. "Yes?"

"Please, look after Sakura," he asked in voice that was trembling with resolve, but he held no delusions about his chances of survival. "Cast out of her home, forced apart from her mother and sister by the bastard, and now…she has to bear that unholy thing our family calls a legacy. Please…"

"I will," Shinji said after a moment. "I promise, no matter what. It's my job as the older brother to do that, and the future head of Matou."

"Thank you," the older Matou's expression softened after that and Kariya rose from the chair and made his way to the door. For the first and last time, Shinji saw his uncle smile as he opened the door and walked away in his half-broken body. He wouldn't see his uncle ever again after that, but his promise would remain in place for years to come.

It was some time later when Shinji learned just what horrible secrets his family held onto. While he was studying abroad, he received one final thing left behind by his uncle. It was a letter, telling him that he wished for Shinji to remember their promise: _**Look after Sakura.**_

In order for him to do that, he needed to know the sins of the Matou, so he could understand her pain and sorrow. So, keeping his promise, Shinji disobeyed his father and looked into the room where they often took Sakura for hours on end…only to see the nightmare that was every waking moment of Sakura's life.

The sound of the meaty worms writhing around, hungrily partaking in the girl's innocence as she lied their lifeless, was sickening. Even more so was the smell of the dark and dank chamber. There was no hope to be found inside that…that…hellhole.

Shinji shut the door and ran, unsure what to do or think. Why did his father and grandfather subject her to such a thing nearly every day? Why didn't she say something?

He needed to know why, but his father was dead drunk somewhere and his grandfather…Shinji shivered at the thought, somehow recalling that same feeling he got from that place and his elderly caretaker. He needed answers, and there was only one other place to get it since his uncle had died.

He entered the study that only the head of the Matou could enter and combed through the knowledge there for hours without realizing it, learning that his clan was one of Magecraft users. Those worms were a part of their family's mysteries, and _that _was considered training for the head of the clan, meaning she was the head and not him.

For a moment, he was angry. That moment passed when his thoughts came back to that pit of worms and basement of corpses. Sakura didn't deserve hatred, not for saving him from that. Now he had to return the favor.

As he looked over more and more of the information, more pieces of the puzzle fell into place. His uncle had the right idea about getting away from his family and saving her. The question was how was he going to save Sakura?

He lacked the Magic Circuit to perform Magecraft according to the notes he found. His uncle had them and failed apparently due to a lack of formal training. So how was he going to do what Kariya failed to?

"There has to be some way," Shinji muttered as he fished through the numerous tomes for even one that would give him the strength to do so. It was then that he brushed off an old tome on the back shelf, hand-written and authored by his grandfather.

And Shinji saw it as the answer he had been searching for.

It would take time, but even if it was one-chance in a fifty, he would become capable of Magecraft, free Sakura, and, better yet, change the system of the Matou into something that didn't make his skin crawl. His uncle ran away from the Matou name out of disgust. His father resigned himself to being a puppet of the Matou name, drinking away his sorrow. His grandfather clung to their aged traditions, continuously in pursuit of a goal that sacrificed even family to do so and the price of failure was steep.

Shinji would surpass them all.

* * *

_Three Years later_

Shinji went silent for final time, his mind teetering on the edge of destruction once again after he screamed loud and hard for roughly half-a-day before the spiritual surgery was complete. Lying naked on a platform in the basement that normally served as Sakura's training grounds, Shinji Matou had been reborn through the hellish pain of having his very soul perverted to an extent that even the girl could sympathize with. His body had become paler than before, as the physical expression of the what now resided in his soul stretched through his body like a second nervous system, and the strain of the surgery had gave him bleach-white stripes alongside his blue hair.

"I had to admit, I was rather surprised by your request," said a man dressed in an ashen robe that had seen many years, with a cowl shielding his face. In a soft, but crude voice, he continued with, "To transplant the circuits from a magus to a non-magus was something that few would ever do on sheer principle—after all, circuits run the risk of being destroyed like that for nothing."

A wet chuckle came from Zouken's mouth as he looked from the boy to the Spiritual Doctor he enlisted from an old contact he still had in Russia. "I figured I may as well take the defective materials I had to work with and see if something productive could be made from them."

To be honest, he found it amusing and somewhat unexpected that his useless grandson managed to endure each session. It was even more amusing that the boy was the one who opted to take his dying father's Magic Circuit after reading up on an old theory of his. To think he had originally considered just getting rid of the boy after Kariya somehow managed to convince him to accept—not just tolerate, but actually accept—the girl.

Upon having the role as the head of the Matou taken from him to be given to her, something he was supposed to think was his birthright, Shinji was supposed to have become abusive, driving her further into despair over time. Once puberty kicked in and the worms inside her became active a few years before the next war, he would also serve a purpose of keeping her in balance by dealing with those urges. Zouken did not like changing his plans, even though he was perfectly capable of it!

But such a death, while it would still serve to drive a minor wedge into the girl's mental defense, was pointless for the moment. Fifteen circuits of the twenty-three from Byakuya's soul managed to successfully integrate into him. It was less than the average magus, admittedly, but still a boon given the low-rate of success.

_**Magic Circuit Transference**_—it was an absurd idea Zouken had conceived in his youth, shortly before discarding the notion and relying to his current method of prolonging his life through his worms. The process of engraving the circuits onto Shinji's soul was excruciating, to say the least—what with peeling away his humanity inch-by-inch, exposing his naked soul to the absent mercy of the doctor, who soldered one circuit as slowly as possible to get the best results every session. The boy had far more willpower than even he expected just to function after the first surgery, let alone the twenty-third one.

Even though Shinji lived through the process and somehow came out sane, if results were consistent with the last twenty-two times, his body had been weakened and he would suffered as his uncle did. It would be a constant reminder of what awaited those who disappointed him and a living monument to the price others paid for the girl's sake, never allowing her to forget that it is all because she refused to simply give in.

Zouken looked at the boy again, pleased to a small extent that his earlier research held up to his standards. "Are you not satisfied for being called out for such a monumental task?"

A smile crept up on the doctor's face. "The simple fact that I may have successfully created the first artificial magus alone, with these hands, was more than enough of a reason for me to come. The research on his body's rejection of the foreign elements of the first five circuits and then acceptance of seventeen due to a hereditary Sorcery Trait thought useless was more than enough. I dare I may take my fruits to the Department of Spiritual Invocation in the Clock Tower."

Zouken had to admit that for the process to go so well, even with the somewhat talented Spiritual Doctor transplanting the circuits, was simply an unexpected boon from the Sorcery Trait he inherited from his mother. She had been the daughter of a third-rate magus from the continent that Byakuya had wedded and was a Carrier for the Sorcery trait 'Inheritor', which should have maximized the chances of Shinji having circuits upon birth. However, even if that didn't happen, the Sorcery Trait was still inherited and made the transference of the circuits much more plausible.

Inheritance covered many things. One could inherit wealth and other things upon birth…or the death of the original owner. Why should the Magic Circuit be any different? Maybe he had been too hasty in discarding the woman rather than forcing her to deliver another offspring through some lesser means.

Byakuya had been a failure, of that he had no doubt. The fact that Shinji had managed to enter the study for the last few years as he pleased due to his father's lush behavior was even more of a reason for Zouken to dismiss him. But, in light of the success, Zouken decided that Byakuya would finally be allowed to die in peace, compared to his current state of being placed between life and death for the transplant.

The writhing of the gross familiars everywhere bought another thing to the mind of the doctor. "While it was a success, I am afraid that the use of your clan's mysteries through typical means would result in his complete destruction. I would prefer he lived long enough to show he is capable of the Art to even a small extent to further my research. He shouldn't attempt anything for at least a month, and I would like periodic reports of his progress over time."

"Very well," he agreed to all the requests, especially not to use the Crest Worms as he did Kariya. It was not out of kindness, but the fact that the grail wouldn't be active for some time and, as it stood, Shinji would be lucky to reach his father's age. That being said, he wouldn't waste any more time than he already did outside of training the girl and plotting his next movements.

Shinji would simply have to make do with what he could find until the war began and he ran out of uses. Perhaps, out of some sense of twisted and sadistic post-mortem gratitude for the woman who had been the boy's mother, he would reach out to her remaining family and have them take the child for a year or so and rehabilitate him.

It never hurt to be thankful.

* * *

_One Month Later_

"I'll be leaving for a little while, Sakura," Shinji said as he patted Sakura on the head. "It's only for a year or so, but I'll come back for you better than ever before. In order to keep my promise, I'll become a magus."

Sakura looked at her older brother with tears in her eyes. So far he had been the only light in the darkness after uncle Kariya died, showing her the price of fighting back against their grandfather. Even then, she could see Shinji was suffering just to do this for her. "Nii-sama, your health—"

"I'll be fine," he switched to giving her a light noogie. "From what I've learned, Mother's sister is taking me in and passing down what her father practiced. Since he was just a third-rate magus by standards, that isn't much and it shouldn't put too much of a strain on my body before I get accustomed to using my circuits. Plus she's some kind of medicine woman too."

He leaned in and whispered into her ear. "Hold onto hope, and wait for me. Okay?"

She nodded, watching as he got into the car and prepared for another long trip. She wiped away the forming tears and refused to cry anymore as Zouken approached her from the side and prepared to usher her into the hellhole again. She would bear it without her brother's kindness, clinging to that distant hope.

* * *

_One Plane Trip Later_

Fang Yin was not happy to be in the airport, waiting her sister's son. Not after her sister died because he supposedly wasn't born as with a Magic Circuit. Now he had been supposedly turned into an Artificial Magus?

Bullshit. If such a thing were possible in the first place, why did her sister have to die as the price of failure before that old worm…If he hadn't paid upfront enough money to let her thrive for the next few years she would have hung up the phone and burned it for good measure, so she didn't have to even think of hearing his slimy voice again. She hated the Matou name as much as she hated her father.

Her father was just a third-rate magus who got himself killed pursing the Art. He had been lucky enough to have been born into a family with relatively new linage and a Sorcery Trait, but unlucky enough to be born without talent and thusly passed up for his family crest that was starting to develop. He wasn't supposed to learn of magic, but he did and decided to attempt to make it on his own, taking what little knowledge he could gather in time and running off only to die a pauper who sold her beloved sister for a chance to explore and recreate a dying craft.

Her sister resigned to her fate without complaint, seeing it as a chance to better their lives through sacrificing hers. The money paid by Zouken would help their father accomplish his goal somewhat and they would have enough to live. Fang Yin trained in her abilities in Chinese Alchemy rather than her father's field, allowing her to produce medicines and concoctions that still held a great deal of worth to the populace of her country, even in this age of digital encroachment.

But more money never hurt, and she would admit she was greedy after growing up poor. So she'd take the brat in and teach him the minimal basics to become a third-rate magus seeking knowledge for knowledge, hand over the remnants of her father's research, and then send him back to the worm thing in the shape of a bitter, short, impotent old man.

As she spotted the pale boy with blue and white hair, she resigned herself to her task. To think her sister died to give birth to a carbon copy of that puppet man…with the exception of his hair. She spun on her heel and started walking after he met up with her. "Keep up boy. I won't slow down for your sake since I have a tall order to fill this week."

* * *

_Three Days Later_

"I've told you," Fang Yin said, tired annoyance lacing her voice. She had already given him medicine laced with magical energy to force open the Magic Circuit and now she was telling him to switch to the circuits as the feeling in his limbs returned. "You need to have something that triggers a reaction to serve as a switch on your Magic Circuit."

Shinji huffed in frustration and gritted his teeth as the sweat rolled from his brow. Everything was harder than he had imagined for the last three years upon reading the knowledge from the Matou study. Practical application was always harder in retrospect, let alone with the added difficulties.

He was burning as he tried to trigger the fifteen in his head to open. The scent of weird medicines in the small studio apartment that served as the location of where she practiced the Art seemed to make him feel even dizzier than before, entering his nose and perverting his mind. He could feel the sheer animosity rolling off the woman as well.

Shinji wasn't dumb. He lived with Zouken and his father, who were far less reserved about it than her. The source of their anger was always his Magic Circuit. The men disliked him because he lacked them, and now that he had them she disliked him. As long as it didn't hinder his training it was fine.

After another failure late in the evening, Fang Yin merely told him to go to bed. Lighting the elegant tobacco pipe she pulled from her robe, she wandered off to get back to her own craft and pushed the thoughts of the Byakuya clone to side and delved into her work. Hours later, as the sun was beginning to peak over the horizon, she surfaced from her workshop and back into the room…only to see the brat still going at it.

_What the Hell?_ Fang Yin thought, listening to the Byakuya clone swear under his breath words that a boy his age shouldn't know. He was still trying? "I thought I told you to go to bed, Brat."

He shook his head and tried once again to access his circuits.

"You're just burning yourself out," she said, slightly more annoyed that he didn't listen. "It can wait, you have all year."

"Don't say something as ridiculous as that," he said in an aggravated and tired tone, trying to conjure up a mental image strong enough to invoke a reaction to fire off his inherited circuits. "I can't afford to take this slow and lounge around. Not on this."

_The stupid brat is going to kill himself from exhaustion at this rate,_ she thought, watching him try again. A mental debate waged to see if she should just knock him out and drag him to bed, but she relented, allowing him to do as he pleased. "Fine, just try to die without making a mess."

* * *

_Later…_

_Oh, come on,_ Fang Yin thought. Shinji's figure was paler than before and his shirt was stained and soaked through. He was _still _trying! _Honestly, he really is going to die at this rate._

On one hand, she could go back to not having to feed more than one person a day. On the other, the old worm would be crossed…no, he wouldn't care that an unimportant puppet like him had gotten broken. That old worm kept the things he truly valued closer to his chest and within reach.

_Screw it, I don't feel like getting rid of a corpse today._ Fang Yin sat down, crossed her legs, and flicked him in the head, causing Shinji to yelp. It hurt a lot more than he expected. "What's the rush? Are you that eager to die or follow the words of that old worm?"

Shinji looked up at her. "I am not like my father and I'm not doing this to please grandfather."

Fang Yin raised an eyebrow.

"Even if I possess father's circuits, he was a failure who bowed to grandfather's wishes and drowned himself in sorrow as a puppet," he said, concentrating again. "I have no intention of doing the same. I promised uncle to protect my sister and for that I need power for that alone."

That was news to her. "What sister? You were an only child."

"She was adopted from another magus family that followed the tradition of one magus per family and given to grandfather to be…trained." Shinji shuddered, briefly recalling the scene of those things all around her. "She doesn't complain about or anything, she just accepts it without fighting back, so I have to do it for her."

Fang Yin felt a pang of rage and sympathy. That was the same thing that happened to her own sister, bought by that old worm to serve a purpose.

"I know that there's nothing I can do now," Shinji continued. "As a mere human being, I could do nothing to help her. Being a patchwork magus, my uncle failed and died defying the old man, only driving her further into being a shell, while my father simply drunk himself stupid. That's why I will accomplish my uncle's goal by keeping my promise—no, better yet, I will be a superior magus than them both and use that power to save Sakura."

"You've got brass ones, Brat," she said after a moment. "But you're wrong. A magus is someone who studies the Art for the sake of reaching the Root and simply knowing. You're talking about using the Art as a tool, a means to an end."

"I don't care about knowledge for the sake of knowledge," he stated. "If it can be used to help Sakura, I'll use it. Magical or otherwise, I want to break her free of the Matou name before I redeem it through purging the rotten worms."

Fang Yin reconsidered her plans for him. Originally, she was just going to drag him along through slow self-study to make him barely a third-rate magus. But if she was turning him into a Spellcaster instead…she could work with that. "You know the old worm will never let her go, right?"

Shinji's eyes became narrow. "I'll find a way to deal with him eventually. Unlike my father and uncle, I won't run from the Matou name. I will reform it and get rid of the current system…after all, why should I accept a system as vile as that when I run it?"

_Brass ones,_ she thought to herself. If he actually managed to kill the old worm somehow, it would be revenge for her sister. Even if he didn't have the ability to, as long as he was trained enough to be competent then he would be able to survive long enough so that the girl wouldn't be all alone.

"Explain the process you're using," she demanded impassively. She had appearances to maintain after all. "Be quick about it, I'm a busy woman."

Wiping sweat from his eyes, he gave her the step-by-step process he used.

"You're not using a strong enough mental trigger," she settled on. "Every magus responds differently, but it seems like you aren't producing an image strong enough to flip the switch. It may be because of the transplanted circuits, or the fact that you weren't a magus to begin with."

"Then what am I supposed to do!" Shinji demanded, getting another flick. In his defense, he was still tired, sweaty, hot, thirsty, and in pain.

"Use your worst fear to drive yourself forward," she said. "Until you can think become accustomed to using a different mental trigger, use what you fear the most activate your circuits for now. The sheer terror alone should have enough of an impact to do so."

His mind was a void as he tried to reach into the recesses of his imagination to find the necessary vision to trigger the reaction he needed…

And was rewarded to the sight of Sakura lying in that bed of worms and decay once again, a sight he never wanted to see again. But it got worse, as Sakura reached towards him and started screaming—something he never heard considering she had been hollowed out well before they had met due to his grandfather introducing her into that nightmare after not even three days of being in that household.

As she reached for him, her flesh was devoured by the worms. Sinew, tendon, eyes, organs, hair—they consumed everything with sickening squelches and loud chewing. The meaty, grubby worms left only bleached white bones that still seemed to reach for him in agony until they too were devoured.

"Guh!" The formless switch was flipped and the sensation of being melted rolled across his body, as if being turned into water in the transition from a solid to a liquid. The liquid body was filled with the mana that lingered in the room, absorbed and transmuted to magical energy to be processed. The molten substance ate away at his nerves as they inverted into circuits and the illusion of steam wafting off his skin as the liquefied contents of his insides were starting to boil.

The price of success was steep and Shinji lost himself in that pain as prana surged, running their course and flooding the circuits for the first time of his own violation. He passed out, his body convulsing briefly and then settling.

Fang Yin bit down a swearword in her native tongue as she inspected him. He had passed out, but it was just from the shock of going full throttle at the start of his training and dehydration. Reaching for a bottle of elixir, she prepared to give him a swig to deal with both at once. He couldn't die now, not before she tested his resolve.

* * *

_Two Weeks Later_

Progress was being made now that he could toggle the switch on his Magic Circuit. The consecration Fang Yin conducted showed his element was water, as expected of the Matou clan. His Origin was what the main problem was and the reason for that personality that screamed he wanted to be on top and was entitled to great things. His Origin was 'Predominance.'

Predominance—the desire to be superior—was troublesome. He wanted to be superior to his father (a mere puppet), his uncle (who was a ramshackle magus who fought and failed), and everyone else in general. At least it was somewhat driven in a good direction by trying to be a better brother, who would look out for his lesser sibling.

She opted out of telling him that though. The Origin was a cause, but if he knew of it then it would become impossible to separate him from it. As it stood now, he had a chance for improvement before things went south once he started getting older and feeling entitled to doing whatever the hell he wanted to women once those hormones kicked in.

"Why am I stuck writing symbols on these slips of paper, over and over!?" Shinji exclaimed to the woman smoking from that elegant pipe she carried, breaking her from her thoughts. "I thought you were going to teach me to be a Spellcaster and use my knowledge practically. How is scribbling characters on a slip of paper practical?"

Fang Yin's only response was to take his brush, dip it in the ink well, grab a slip, inscribe a character while channeling prana and then sticking it on his head. Shinji's gave a muffled cry as his body felt far heavier and it felt like gravity was stomping him into the ground. She blew out a puff of smoke in his face as she kneeled down and looked him in the eyes as he coughed.

"You need to use something established to practice besides the basics of Material Transmutation to gain and use magical energy, if you want to be a halfway decent Spellcaster by the end of the year we have. For all the studying that you claimed to do in Japan, little of it was Formalcraft, which knowledge of is necessary and I don't have, so we're using what my father researched—his half-completed knowledge of unique _Shenfu_ (Talisman) and _Fuwen _(Magic Writing).

"You have no lineage because you don't carry your family's crest, just as my father had no Magic Crest since he wasn't the one to continue as his family heir; after all it's like transferring a major organ and can't be split. He wasn't supposed to have learned about magic at all and live a normal life, but he did learn about it and split himself off from the main family to attempt to succeed as a magus. He failed, but his knowledge can be used to aid you.

"That ink you're using contains your blood, laced with magical energy since it clings to fluids better than nearly anything else outside the body. The fuwen he collected cost a great deal of money since they came from several _Fulu Pai_ and managed to get compiled into something useful, but the principles are the same as runes. Combined with shenfu, they can store magical energy in them temporarily or realize a mystery at your discretion."

There was a snap as the shenfu placed on him deactivated, allowing him to move freely once again. He just didn't because the woman scared him a bit. He might have been better off when she didn't take an interest in him.

"Every day, you will realize a mystery through fuwen and every time you fail at you will do it over, along with the basics of reinforcement and transformation. Then I'm putting you to work," she finished her lecture and watched as Shinji cringed.

"Work!?" he sputtered out.

"Of course," she said as she stood, looking down at him. "I'm taking my time out to train you, so I'm putting you to work as my assistant while you're here. If you're lucky you can pick up a few tidbits of knowledge in the process, so you can deal with that weak body of yours that breaks down under the weight of your own mysteries."

And so he learned over the course of the year.

With the circuits he inherited and the knowledge he gained from Fang Yin, combined with his own creativity and drive, Shinji Matou would become a major player in the grail war in his attempts to succeed where his uncle had failed.

* * *

**Authors Note:** Now, I had this idea on revamping Shinji after I realized that even though in canon he was a horrible person, he was nicer as a child and the situation of his household may have been one of those factors that changed everything. His mother, who had a Sorcery Trait left untapped and was the daughter of another magus, was killed by Zouken, his father became a distant douche upon him learning about Sakura, and his grandfather…well, he's Zouken. Do I even have to say it?

So, what if Shinji met Sakura shortly after she arrived, as well as Kariya and Shinji mother's side of the family had met with him and it led to him being a better person to Sakura? Not a hero, like Shirou, or a complete monster of a magus, like his grandfather. A Spellcaster and jerk with a heart of gold.

This is a combination of Characters and Plots form Fate/Extra, Fate/Prototype, Fate/Stay Night (Anime, Manga, and Game), Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel. Even though I'm a fan of the Nasuverse, I'm not as adept at several factors and legends I have planned so research will slow me down in making what will hopefully be a decent fanfic.

I will probably be screwing around with some facts and borrowing some elements from other fanfics, but if you think you can do better, I encourage it as a challenge and see my profile. This is an untapped field after all.


	2. Chapter 1: Shirou Emiya, Wannabe Hero

**Chapter 1: Shirou Emiya, Wannabe Hero**

* * *

_One Year Later_

A delicate string of smoke rose from the end of the tobacco pipe as Fang Yin attempted not to laugh at Shinji, his face hidden behind a Chinese opera mask with a fixed smiling expression. The mask itself had a mystery applied to it that made it cling to the boy's face and, considering his personality and the visage of the mask…she failed, hard. Her face broke into a smile as she laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of it.

Shinji's eyes narrowed behind the mask. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Yes," she admitted with a smirk. "Yes I am. Don't you like your graduation present?"

Shinji's eye twitched in response. "This is why you shouldn't go out shopping with that old geezer that smells like opium while drunk. Now get this thing off me before I enter the airport!"

"I can't remember the phrase to do that…" Fang Yin chuckled. "It'll probably come back to me before we get there…"

The pair was in her car, heading to the airport to get Shinji back to Fuyuki. It had been a year since they had met and she had taught him as much as she could cram into him within that time frame. Chinese Alchemy, Material Transmutation, Minor Mental Manipulation, Fuwen, Shenfu—she covered the basics and left the deeper mysteries for him to discover on his own time in Japan, laying the ground work for improvement.

As they pulled into the parking lot of the airport, the phrase finally came back to her and she spoke it while prana laced her voice. "_**Tsang!**_"

The mask unstuck itself and fell into Shinji's lap, who breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally!"

"Okay," Fang Yin said from the driver's side as her temporary charge got out of the car. "It's been real, Brat. Try not to play into the old worm's hands and, if you do, die well."

"I don't intend to fall into his hands or die before I've accomplished my goals," he replied smugly. "Same goes to you, lay off the smoking or you'll get wrinkles…Sifu."

"Hmph," she snorted, pulling out her pipe and lighting it. "You're getting soft to call me master. Hurry up and get out of here."

With their words said, Shinji Matou made his way into the airport. Fang Yin already had his equipment and workshop things sent ahead, while Shinji kept his notes in a note book he had on him, which he planned on switching over to a laptop or something—I mean it was the new millennium, not ancient times—so as to prevent the old worm from guessing what he could do completely. He was on his own from now on when it came to his studies into the Art and how it could benefit his health, his sister, and his circumstances.

As he made his way to the plane he fingered the candy he made through his Sifu's art. It had some medicinal properties as well as magical, which would make her feel a little bit happier and brighter. Fang Yin described it as sunshine for your mouth. Anything that made Sakura feel better until he could do something about those worms in her body was a boon.

And so, Shinji Matou made his way back to Japan.

* * *

_Sometime Later_

A fist was clumsily thrown at the boy with red-hair, one that could be easily dodged. He could see it coming, but he couldn't dodge it unless he wanted to risk the plum-haired girl behind him getting hit instead. So he took the hit meant for her. "Ghh—!"

Shirou Emiya stood strong as he weathered the blows that came one after another. Granted, they were simply the untempered fists of school children only a year older than him at best, but his tiny body was just as untempered.

He didn't know the girl, having come to the park with his adoptive father, whose health had been getting a bit worse and sometimes strolled around to take in the often relaxing nature of the area. Shirou wandered off for a bit when he came across a scene that angered him.

Three kids were picking on a girl who seemed to lack any life in her eyes, simply crouching over and holding her head as they dumped sand on her and tugged on her hair for one reason or another. He jumped into the fray by body-checking one of them and then becoming a human shield. Confident that they, who outnumbered him three-to-one, could take him, the beating began.

The entire time the girl looked at him like he was an enigma. Who was this boy? Why did he help her? What did he gain from it?

No one helped Sakura unless they knew her. If they tried to help her, they got hurt. That seemed to be written in stone ever since she became a Matou and her original family abandoned her.

Shinji told her their uncle tried to help her, but he died in front of her pitifully. Her brother said he would help her and Grandfather had her watch as he went through the surgery to attach the circuits to his soul a few times. The same thing would happen to anyone else that tried, she was sure.

So why did this boy continuously take hit after hit for her, without knowing her. She hadn't seen him before. She hadn't spoken to him before. So why did he continue to stand up for her?

The boys halted their assault after one managed to get in a hit that left Shirou with a nosebleed and the biggest of them puffed out his chest proudly. He seemed to be neglecting the fact that his hands were starting to hurt and the boy didn't fight back. "See what you get when you mess with us?"

Shirou simply let out a breath he had been holding and asked, "Why were you picking on her?"

"Because she's weird," the leader said. "You got a problem with that?"

"He might not, but I do," said a voice from behind the three. That got everyone's attention and they turned to see Shinji Matou approach, huffing from his brief running pace.

"Nii-sama?" Sakura said, her eyes regaining a bit of their light. It seemed like he had gotten a little better since then and his skin tone was healthier, a little bit…although the look of anger on his face was a new one for her.

The leader stormed over and jacked the blue-and-white haired kid up by the collar of his shirt and looked him in the eye. "What are you going to do about it?"

_Oh no,_ Shirou thought as the other two that remained stood in front of him and blocked his way. If he left to go help the boy, then he couldn't help the girl.

Shinji, on the other hand, put on a nasty smirk and activate the circuits in his eyes, triggering his artificial Mystic Eyes of Whisper. The connection was made and he whispered low so that no one else heard him order the boy to, "_Go beat up your friends._"

The bully stared at him for a bit…and then dropped him to go plant his fist into the back of the other kid's head. The kid rubbed his head and then hit him back, and it soon escalated while Shinji walked over them and went to the idiot and his sister.

"What happened to them?" Shirou asked, conflicted if he should stop it or not. On the one hand, they were beating him up. On the other, the bigger kid had grabbed a stick.

"I told him the other kids were making fun of him behind his back," Shinji lied smoothly. "Morons with muscle like that will believe anything and, since those two were merely lackeys, he didn't doubt it."

Shinji narrowed his eyes and asked, "Why did you just stand there and take a beating? What are you to Sakura?"

"I saw her being bullied and decided to help," Shirou said as he looked at the girl and extended a hand to help her stand up. "You have a pretty name, Sakura."

"So you've never met and decided to help her even though they outnumbered you?" Shinji said with disbelief in his voice. When he saw Shirou nod, and actually meant it, he bluntly said, "You're an idiot…"

And then he froze as ice ran down his spine. Someone was behind him, someone dangerous. He turned to face a grown man who looked even paler than him on a bad day.

"Dad?" Shirou said. "Is something wrong?"

Shinji hurriedly corrected himself. "I meant he was an idiot in a good way—no, I mean not an idiot."

Kiritsugu merely nodded and fixed his gaze on his son. "I'm curious as to what happened here and why those three are fighting?"

"A petty squabble," Shinji said. "They turned on themselves as quickly as they do others. They're morons."

"Hmm," the older man said, "Let me go have a word with those three before they hurt themselves seriously then. Trying to hit each other with sticks is a bit overdoing it for a small squabble."

As the man walked off, Shinji wiped the sweat from his brow at meeting the man. He felt it was time to leave, but one of the first things his Sifu taught him was to be thankful to those who helped you. After all, it made using them again easier, and the boy did help his sister. "What's your name?"

"Shirou Emiya," the boy stated.

"My name is Shinji Matou, and this is Sakura," he nodded to his sister, who now stood behind him. "Thanks for being a well-meaning idiot. I'd give you something else as thanks but the best I can do for now is say that."

"It's fine," Shirou said. "I don't help people for thanks, but because it needed to be done."

"Hm…" Shinji shook his head at the idiocy and turned to Sakura. "Let's go."

"Okay, Nii-sama," she said softly, before turning and giving Shirou a small, "Thank you."

Shirou watched the brother and sister walk off into the distance, until his father returned. "Shirou, did you get their names, by any chance?"

"Yeah," the boy nodded. "Shinji and Sakura Matou."

"I see…" was all the man said. The wheels in his head however were turning. He knew that family name.

The boy was a magus, considering that he had hypnotized one of the boys into committing an act of violence. Kiritsugu had dispelled it through his last active circuit, which put a bit of stress on him despite the fact that it should have been easy, due to his health, but that didn't change the fact that Shirou wasn't at a point where he could discern that. The fact that his nose was bleeding and the scent of blood probably made it so he didn't smell when the child used his artificial mystic eyes in addition to it being so weak.

It would be…troublesome if he came looking for revenge after the Magus Killer had personally broken into their home and shot the hand off of what was probably his father, going by appearances, and Shirou couldn't defend himself. His skill in Magecraft was poor at best, despite the quality of his circuits. "Shirou, how has it been going with using your Magic Circuit?"

"Better," he said. "It doesn't hurt as much when I make the circuit now. But whenever I try to use _Projection_ the items are empty inside, so I use it as an extension of strengthening through _Reinforcement_ instead."

Kiritsugu raised an eyebrow at the boy's choice of words. Leaving aside the unorthodox strengthening he focused on, "What do you mean it doesn't hurt as much when you 'make' the circuit now?"

Shirou scrunched up his face and thought about it. "When I make my circuit from scratch, it felt like a hot rod going down my spine, but I'm used to that."

The man's ailing heart froze for a beat and he gave a withered cough.

"Dad, are you okay?" Shirou asked.

He waved the boy's concern off for a bigger one. Shirou had been turning his nerves into makeshift circuits. He had literally been walking alongside death until this point, and Kiritsugu just noticed it now while his time was running out. He had been adamant on not teaching him much to avoid him walking such a path, and it was for naught.

"Shirou, let's go over how to use your Magic Circuit a few more times as we walk," he said. "After that, we need to discuss the future if you still plan on using Magecraft."

* * *

_With the Matou Siblings_

"Nii-sama, when did you get back?" Sakura asked as they made their way back home.

"A few hours ago," he answered. "I had came home and found out that you weren't there, so I came retrieve you…why didn't you tell me you were being bullied in the letters you sent?"

"Because you were working so hard and I didn't want to burden you," she said. "It doesn't hurt, so…"

"Regardless, next time you tell me," he with a slight growl. "Standing there and needing to get help from a stranger makes you look bad and got the idiot a bloody nose. You're lucky his dad didn't make us recompensate or something for the trouble."

"Yes, Nii-sama," Sakura answered. A few minutes of silence followed until she asked him a question. "What…did you learn over there?"

"I learned a diversity of skills, rather than exceeding in one," Shinji told her. "The ground work has been laid. All that's left is to improve what I know and devour more knowledge. To that extent, I've been looking up some arts that interested me and decided to see if I can get access to it. I'm setting up one of the spare rooms as my workshop, and because I'm so smart I've even gotten my own Mystic Code."

"Really?" Sakura tilted her head. He pulled out an intricate fountain pen and inscribed on the air the symbol for 'water' in fuwen, causing it to shoot a spout of clear water out like a hose. "Wow…"

"It uses my blood mixed with ink and my element to transcribe the fuwen in the air using water molecules," he said, leaving out that it was a drain to use compared to the more stable shenfu. But he had to show her some results from his efforts. His ego demanded it.

"You're amazing, Nii-sama," she said honestly.

"That's right," he gloated, patting her head. Then he remembered the candy he made and pulled one in a clear wrapper out for her. "Try this. I made it for you."

She unwrapped and put it in her mouth curiously…and was met with a warm, comforting feeling enveloping her body. It was nice and soothing. "It's delicious and it makes me feel a little…better."

"That's what it's supposed to do," he said. "Now, let's go home and I'll tell you about what I did overseas. You wouldn't believe how irresponsible that aunt of mine was…"

* * *

_One Year Later_

"Trace on. Basic structure, analyze. Composition, analyze. Basic structure, alter. Composition, reinforce." Practicing _Structural Grasping_, the twelve-year old Shirou Emiya set out to work on the skills he had at the moment to pass the time now that Kiritsugu had passed away under the moonlight a few months ago.

He was lucky to have gotten a job at the Copenhagen thanks to the Master and he got paid extremely well for only three hours of work. His daughter, Otoko Hotaruzuka was nice too but, even though she and Taiga had known each other since High School, they clashed over personalities. Otoko was hardworking and despised lazy people, considering Taiga to be a bad influence on him.

His father did not leave his Magic Crest behind for Shirou, but he left behind knowledge of his exploits and his method of anti-magus combat—except for the details of the event that left him sick. The weary man spent his final hours helping his son make up for what he lacked over the years, due to his lackluster interest in introducing Shirou into the world of Magecraft and mysteries. The lessons were meaningful, but at the same time harsh.

However, one cannot cram a lifetime of training into a year, and Shirou Emiya from then on had to practice on his own with his limited resources. His father had no idea that the next war would start soon, and thusly only told him that the grail wasn't worth it and left a final request, asking for his daughter to be saved if Shirou continued to pursue the path he did.

And so Shirou trained, learning from his father even after death…

All in hopes of being a superhero someday.

* * *

_With Shinji Matou_

It was truly lucky that the Matou lived close to the outskirts of the city that had a fairly large area of woodland and an additional Bounded Field, set in an inconspicuous section by his grandfather, which allowed Shinji to practice his Art since he refused to do so in that basement of worms and corpses. His only regret for the moment was that he had to deal with his grandfather's idea of adequate training partners as a result—**Blade Wing Worms**.

As if the horrendous familiars of the old worm couldn't get any worse, now they could fly…and seemed hungry. Then again, he found it somewhat stress-relieving to think that for every one of them he killed, it was one less that Sakura had to deal with and he would have to get rid of later. The old worm was probably breeding a dozen for every single one he killed, but it was the thought that counted.

From the right sleeves of Shinji's shirt came shenfu that appeared in his hands, each bearing a simple symbol of flame written in fuwen, and were tossed towards the incoming horde. The 'Seal of Flames' on each one ignited in mid-flight as they went streaking and fire hungrily consumed the flesh and fat of the worms, bestowing upon them a fate similar to the corpses that they fed off of—being turned into fuel and nourishment. But it wasn't enough as more soon took their place and he kept running.

Using the base-level shenfu he created wasn't nearly as taxing as trying to inscribe new characters in the magic writing since he simply needed to give them a prana tug to trigger the magical energy stored within them. Plus, he wasn't going to use some of the higher-tier ones in a situation like this, nor the other mysteries he had up his sleeves. It would only be a waste considering how much magical energy he managed to store inside those shenfu through his blood-ink when he could only channel so few units of prana through them.

Getting aggravated by the constant swarms that tried to linger outside his range and holding shenfu between each of his fingers, with the lightning character denoting them as 'Seal of Lightning' talismans, he began the to impress his will upon them.

"Form, construct—" The shenfu began to fold upon themselves, taking the shape of dragonflies with their wings locked into place. "Life, impart—" There was a glow as the dragonflies came to life, fluttering their wings as they awaited their command. "Purpose, destruction of enemy—" With their orders set, they only awaited to command to begin. "Mission, start!"

The animated manikin constructs flew off at his command and threw themselves at the flying worms. Upon reaching the menaces, they released their curse that served as the basis of their existence, unloading a string of lightning that washed over the bugs. The flow of electricity ruptured their bloated bodies and fried their wings, leaving the mess of fluid and meat to fall to the ground.

**Shikigami Exertion**—the art of creating a being similar to a familiar with the power to do a single-purpose curse and would last until he lost the energy to sustain them. It was the second piece, useful information he could reclaim from the Ryuudou Temple after bribing an unscrupulous monk for access to the scrolls of their Houjutsu…and some hypnotism using his Mystic Eyes of Whisper to make sure he kept quiet and couldn't identify him afterwards.

Even then, what he used was merely a degraded version compared to the ones he had at home and even then a familiar was preferable. These creations weren't alive in the sense of a familiar and were inferior. They could only carry out his simplistic orders on their own, unless he guided them, and they weren't capable of using the Art or having their own Magic Circuit.

In the end it was just something thrown together to work for his low number of circuits and health. Not that they didn't have their uses as excellent suicide bombers, trackers, and spies, especially when he used a shenfu as a medium to serve as the basis of the single-use curse they could unleash. Since he wasn't limited to using living animals, he'd often reshape them into that of a dragonfly for size and speed, further reinforcing it if he needed durability.

If he needed something bigger, like the size of a dog or up, he needed to have an appropriate amount of paper with a shenfu inside as a core and to use a Formalcraft ritual belonging to the school of magic. The one time he tried to do it without the ritual it failed and left him gasping for air while in pain from the strain of using magic that was beyond him…for now. In other words, it was a cheap practice that required a lot of set up if you wanted to do something impressive, but even then it was still limited.

Still, given the temple's history and despite the fact that there were no longer any active Houjutsushi, there should have been more knowledge than a couple of scrolls that he found besides the shikigami information in a spiritual land like this. Somehow Shinji didn't doubt the fact that it was purposely hollowed out by his grandfather at one point and time, given how effective their exorcism arts tended to be on things like him. Now that he truly knew how twisted his grandfather's craft was, it wouldn't be a surprise.

Shinji registered the presence of magical energy and interpreted it as sound. To him, the sound of Zouken's body alone was the same squelching sound of bloated worms moving about in an unnatural manner that sent shivers down his spine.

_Throb._

"_Ngh_…" Shinji grunted as the feeling of his circuits running hot was becoming all consuming and his od levels were dropping. As if sensing his distraught, the horde of insects prepared to swarm, leaving him no choice but to wrap this up and then head back to the Matou Residence to go take the medicine he made to aid his body from the strain.

* * *

_Inside Shinji's Workshop_

Sakura Matou stared in curiosity at the items in her brother's workshop as she waited for him to return from the shower after practicing, feeling a little dizzy and hot. Even though it had been a few years, she subconsciously found herself comparing it to the Tohsaka one that her sister had once taken her into. It was different, to say the least.

In one corner, by a fireplace, was a sturdy table with chemicals in vials and…gourds? A cauldron was bubbling over a low fire, and the scent of herbs and medicine was in a cabinet that was nailed to the wall. She didn't know what he used, but Shinji would make her some of that candy that made her feel better once a month from there.

She looked over to his laptop in another corner, where he typed in the notes he had gathered. He mentioned that he was slowly transcribing all the materials in the study too, but it would take a few years. Her fat—Tokiomi Tohsaka never used something like that, always relying on older methods because of his pride as a magus…

Sakura hated that and loved it about him when she was younger. His obsession with the elegance of being a magus was what led to her current situation. The fact that he died and her mother was soon to follow left her feeling conflicted, a mixture of glee and sorrow. They were responsible for everything, giving her to Zouken, introducing her to the pain of betrayal and perversion of the Crest Worms.

Even though it was a cruel feeling, knowing that Rin had no one and she had her brother left her somewhat happy and horribly guilty at the same time, because she knew there was nothing Rin could have done. A sinister part of her even wished she could put her through what she went through, sharing the pain. Although she would be hard pressed to admit it, she missed her sister and the fact that they never saw each other despite their residence being so close together…but Rin was a magus before she was a sister, and following tradition meant a lot to her, so they would never be sisters.

Walking over to the corner by the door, Sakura saw ran her hand alongside a large shikigami modeled after, and scaled to the size of, a tiger. Her brother named it '_**Baihu**_' and said that the white sheets of construction paper that made it were all reinforced through fuwen written on the underside of the individual pieces that merged seamlessly, to the extent that you could barely tell where one sheet began and another ended, placing its exterior at the same level as steel. He told her that the ritual took him four hours to make sure he didn't botch it since it was his first major combat shikigami…and it took a lot of paper, so much he had to have her help bring it in.

Since then he made a few more that lay in the pile: _**Zhuque**_, the phoenix made of red and gold sheets. _**Qinglong**_, the dragon made of azure-blue sheets. _**Genbu**_, the turtle made of black sheets. _**Fangfeng**_, the giant made of tanned sheets. _**Bashe**_, the serpent made of two-shades of green sheets.

The numerous shikigami there were merely shells, manikins who's 'Seal of False Life' had not received the necessary connection to move on their own after they had been tested. They were his proudest prototypes; ones that would serve to further improve his future shikigami…Sakura still wondered how he got them out of the house to test and then back inside being so big and heavy.

On another desk, to the left of the group of constructs, were origami animals in containers that her brother used. There were a couple of map of Fuyuki that had scribbling on them as well, a few charred at certain points. He said he was making a divination tracking array or something, using the four gods.

_Nii-sama is really learning magic,_ Sakura thought. And part of that scared her. What if he decided to follow the path of a magus as well and abandon her?

_Crreeekkkk…_The door creaked open as Shinji appeared, a towel around his neck after changing into a thermal shirt and pajama pants.

"Sakura, it's late," he said. "Why are you still up? It's nearly Midnight."

"I…wanted to see you," she said softly, staggering as she walked towards him.

"You can barely stand straight," he said, his brow furrowed in curiosity as he felt her head. "You're burning up too. I'll give you some medicine and put you into bed."

"I'm…fine," she said.

"No, you're not," Shinji sighed before taking the girl into his arms and carrying her out. "I'll stay with you tonight to make sure you get some sleep."

"But, your notes…?" Sakura tried to argue; poorly given she could barely stay awake. "You said you were going to—"

"They can wait until the morning," he assured her, carrying her through the hall. "I'm your brother before I'm a spellcaster."

A magus who doesn't follow the traditional path of the magus was a spellcaster. Shinji was not a magus in that sense, as he refused the tradition that abandoned her to this life. He studied the Art to help her, not for the sake of the Art itself.

Knowing that, Sakura resigned to resting in his arms and basking in his warmth. He would never betray her or abandon her, not like her family before now. "Okay, Nii-sama…"

* * *

_In A Dark Alley Somewhere_

Zouken felt the warm emotion of Storge affection filling the girl, after going through a range of other emotions, using the connection with his familiars inside her. He smiled enough that it shifted the wrinkles on his newly acquired body's cheeks as he walked from the point of the victim's death back to his home. He could capitalize on those emotions, and twist them into something ugly soon enough.

After all, the worms were starting to feed on her prana more and more as she grew older.

The process was not too quickly, as to not break her body before he could get her soul and mind to do it first. Right now she merely felt feverish and a twinge of craving that was easily suppressed subconsciously. But soon, in two or three years, it would get to the point where she would seek relief from the all-consuming carnal desires of the Crest Worms through the more satiable means.

And Shinji would be forced to give it to her or watch as her mind crumbled beneath the lust.

That sibling bond would make the act even more sickening to the pair, their bodies savoring the feeling as their minds rejected their actions. It would stain their souls with every ounce of self-loathing, pity, anger, shame, and hatred they could muster. They would probably try to rationalize it as them not being actual siblings in blood, but the dark feelings would mar their souls and make them wallow in private—staining an innocent affection forever.

Zouken would admit that Shinji was worth more than his father ever was as a puppet. The man was an easily controlled fool, whom he simply allowed to waste away due to his vices. But unlike his father, the boy didn't know he was being manipulated. Every ounce of kindness he showed her, every thought of freeing her from her fate, and every bit of happiness that was obtained would be thrown back as despair three times over.

Shinji was much like his uncle Kariya in the fact that he believed that he could do something on his own and was defying the elderly Matou. Yet he was different in the fact that he was actively studying a craft and seeking knowledge and power rather than expecting Zouken to hand it to him, as his uncle did and paid the price for it. With that power, he could at least serve as a decent pawn in the Holy Grail War that was coming.

Zouken had monitoring systems in place, and he knew that the destruction of the physical body of the grail had ended up leaving it with so much unspent energy that it was devoting it to restarting the war sooner. As if a fire that small could encompass all the energy of the grail. It would be less than ten years by his guess, although he would know for certain once a Servant had been summoned and a command seal issued.

The representative of the Matou would most likely be the girl and thusly placing her in danger. The boy would act to protect her and at the same time bring him the grail for her freedom, as did Kariya. While Shinji didn't have the prana levels to sustain a Servant and probably wouldn't, there was always the '_Book of the False Attendant_' Zouken had developed to fill in the gap rather than risk his most valuable pawn. It would also have the benefit of allowing him to fight with all his power without the strain of handling such a large existence.

Still, it wouldn't be as effective as a real command seal and once exposed it would place Sakura as a target. But hopefully the boy will have managed to kill a Master or two with the skills he did have by that point, before being killed by the Tohsaka heir and spurring the girl to loathe her sister anew at taking away her seemingly last shot at happiness. That should be enough to twist her into the perfect existence.

There was always the slim possibility that Shinji could win the prize himself if the Servant was strong enough, but Zouken liked not laying all his worms in a single pit, so to speak. Perhaps he should actually make an effort to seek out a suitable summoning catalyst while he had the time and advantage of the knowledge. That would maximize his chances to ensure him the Holy Grail and immortality that didn't rely on having such a withered body.

"Just a little more time before the pieces fall into place," the old worm in human form said, as he walked the dark street with a smile on his face.

* * *

_Second Year, Middle School_

Time had passed.

Within the halls of a school building, the spellcaster and the one who sought the path of the hero met once again on even ground, unaware that the other walked alongside death for the sake of a goal otherwise unreachable.

"Ah…you're that idiot from a few years back, aren't you?" Shinji asked as the sun was starting to set. He was inspecting the cultural festival signboard that Shirou was fixing up. "You're still an idiot for doing this for those third-year guys, but you do really good work."

"Thanks," Shirou blinked until he recognized him by his hair, after all it was unique. "Shinji Matou, right? How's your sister?"

"Fine as she can be," he said. "If you're planning on doing the other signboards you'll be late getting home. Won't that worry your family?"

"I live alone for the most part since my Dad died, and Fuji-nee is at her job until later." Shirou said plainly.

"Sorry to hear that," Shinji said honestly. The thought did cross his mind considering how the man seemed sick but…still. "Anyway, I still owe from that time with Sakura. How about we head out to this Italian Restaurant I know."

"I told you, I wasn't expecting a reward—"

"I insist," Shinji said. "Besides, the company will keep me from getting bored."

Shirou simply shrugged, realizing he wasn't getting out of it. It didn't hurt to eat out every now and again, plus he rarely made friends. It was the beginning of an awkward friendship to say the least.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Alright, Shirou is in the game now. This would be an example of a ripple effect, in meeting Shinji, who knew Magecraft, led to Kiritsugu discovering Shirou's screw up, and in turn will lead to Shirou being somewhat more competent than before.


	3. Chapter 2: Rin Tohsaka, Rival Magus

**Chapter 2: Rin Tohsaka, Rival Magus**

* * *

_High School, First Year_

Shinji Matou stared at the blackboard while waiting for class to begin in Homurahara High School. He didn't really know most of the people as it had been a short time since he enrolled. While Shirou Emiya was in the same class, he was called out to help deal with something at the request of Issei Ryuudou, at the recommendation of their English and Homeroom teacher, Taiga Fujimura…who was asleep at her desk.

Not really feeling like talking to anyone for a prolonged period, it left him listening to the murmurings of his classmates while writing down some new ideas for his shikigami silently, until a certain line of dialogue came up.

"That girl was pretty cute wasn't she? What was her name again…" Gai Gatou scratched his head in thought, before slamming is fist into his palm. "Oh yeah, Rin Tohsaka!"

**SNAP!** There was a loud snap as Shinji crushed his pencil in shock. He knew that name, or at least the last name. It was the name his uncle told him that night, Sakura's original family name. Her sister was in the building?

"Hey," Shinji got up and tapped the kid on the shoulder, to get his attention. "What class did you see Rin Tohsaka in?

* * *

_With Rin Tohsaka_

Rin Tohsaka was busily trying to manage her regular life and her life as a magus, maintaining both with a sense of elegance that had been driven throughout her lineage since the time of her ancestors. It was a chore, but something she practiced after her father died and her best friend, Kotone had to move away shortly after she had been rescued. While maintaining her school idol personality, she was confident nothing could shake her.

"I'm trying out for the track-and-field team again once they start recruiting," Kaede Makidera told her. "What about you Rin?"

"No," she said while sitting straight in her chair, giving the girl a smile. "I won't have time for a club since I do a lot of self-study on average. Grades are—"

She was cut off when the door slid open, and in came a boy with a slightly pale complexion and blue hair tainted with white areas. He looked around until he saw her and walked straight up to her. "Rin Tohsaka?"

"I am," she responded, curious as to the sudden development. "Can I help you with something?"

"My name is Shinji Matou," he said curtly. No one but Shinji saw the realization in her eye at his last name. "Will you accompany me to speak in private before class begins?"

The class broke into whispers, saying things like, "A confession already?"

"…Very well," Rin said after a moment and followed him out of the class to the rooftop. The Matou name was not one she could take lightly making a request and she sincerely doubt it would be about a confession. If anything, they just made a cover for her.

Once they made it to the rooftop and shut the door, Rin leaned against the fence and turned to face him. "What did you want to discuss?"

"Sakura," he said bluntly. "Your sister."

"I have no sister," Rin said plainly, as if speaking on the weather. "I am the sole daughter of the Tohsaka family."

Shinji gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. "Are you serious?"

"Sakura Matou is not my sister," Rin said again. "She's a daughter of the Matou clan, taken in and removed from the Tohsaka linage."

"Do you even know how the Matou Magecraft works?" Shinji asked, with venom in his voice. "Every single day she suffers because of it."

"That's the price of a magus," Rin said, losing just a bit of her cool and flipping her hair. "You should be grateful since without her, your bloodline would have ended since your generation didn't have any circuits. With Sakura, the Matou name can remain that of one that practices the Art."

"To Hell with the Art!" Shinji snapped. "Sakura—"

"Matou-san." Rin stated with her voice flat but aggravation present within it. "You aren't a magus, so you can't understand what it means to have the pride of one. However, what is done is done. Rin Tohsaka doesn't have a sister, understood?"

"Is that your final word?" Shinji asked, constraining his anger. He could hear the magical energy being processed by her circuits, most likely planning on hypnotizing him if he continued.

"It is," she said. "Now, never bring up this topic again. As a member of a founding family, absence of circuits or not, it would be a shame if I had to use Mental Manipulation on you."

"…You'll regret this," Shinji replied, before walking over to the door and slamming it as he left.

The moment that he was down the stairs and no longer in hearing range, Rin turned to the fence and tightened her grip on the links. Her face broke its elegant mask and scrunched up as she held back the tears. It was the right thing to do, her father ensured her, no matter what.

Only one may inherit the family art, while the other may inherit nothing. If the Matou hadn't taken her in, she would have been relegated to a life of exclusion from the Art. To one of a magus bloodline that was the ultimate disgrace.

For Rin to be a Tohsaka magus meant that Sakura had to be sacrificed. It was as simple as that. If her new brother was looking out for her then it at least she was being cared for…

But it didn't mean that it didn't hurt her deep inside. "Sakura…"

* * *

_With Shinji_

_How dare she write off Sakura like that,_ Shinji thought to himself as he made his way back to class with a scowl on his face, not paying attention to the people who were around him and whispering as he passed by. _She has friends while Sakura feels unworthy of them! She doesn't have the burdens Sakura does—and then says I should be grateful that such a repulsive art remains because of her sacrifice?_

It was only once he was in the classroom, where a student was prodding Taiga as she slept, did he learn the contents of the discussions.

"Shinji," Shirou called out to get his attention. "Are you okay?"

"Ah, Emiya," he shrugged. "Why do you ask?"

Gai decided to answer that. "Well, you just got turned down by Rin Tohsaka, so we were expecting you to be heartbroken and crying tears of regret and lamentation…"

Shinji's response was a flat, "Huh?"

"It's all over the building. Everyone's talking about how you went to confess to the school idol in the making," Gai said factually. "I take it that it went badly?"

_What the hell? _Shinji thought before deciding to roll with it. "Yeah, she rejected me thoroughly. Stupid girl doesn't know what she passed up on. Her loss…"

Technically it wasn't a lie. She rejected his efforts to reconcile her with her sister. She passed up on a chance to help her sister heal.

"Cheer up man," Gai said. "At least it was in private. Plus, your sacrifice will ensure that no one else has to bear the mark of being the first person she's rejected. We salute your martyrdom!"

And then, as if to mock him, several other boys did so as well.

"That's not really funny," Shirou said.

Shinji agreed silently and would get even soon enough. For now, he had other priorities.

* * *

_Later that Evening at the Matou Estate_

Shinji made his way back home after class was done, his emotions still stirring over the conversation with the Tohsaka girl. Upon entering the domain and then the living room, he froze as he saw his year-younger sister, already dressed in more casual clothing now that she had been let out of school as well.

"Sakura…" Shinji looked away from her. He had kept a somewhat distant approach after those worms made it necessary for him to…Shinji shivered, not willing to think about it. Sakura was by all accounts attractive, but the circumstance and their relationship alone made it sickening. He could barely stand to look at himself in the mirror for enjoying the physical aspect of it, but his body would often betray him otherwise. He could only imagine how it must've felt for Sakura.

As if sensing his distraught, she also looked away and took a few steps back. "I'm sorry…"

"No, you've done nothing wrong…" he said as he scratched the back of his head. Clearing the visions of her naked body writhing before him and the moans that followed in the cluster of emotions, he snapped back to reality in order to tell her the bad news. "I met Rin Tohsaka at school."

Sakura stiffened. While her lips pursed and her body tensed in anticipation, she noticed his face melt into one that was filled with regret. That was enough of an answer for her. "I…see…"

"I'm sorry," he told her as gently as possible. The contents of what he was apologizing for were all too clear between them. "I…I tried, but she wouldn't—"

"It's fine," was all Sakura said. "I didn't expect her to…I-I'm feeling a bit ill…I'll be resting in my room for a while."

He reached out as she ran through the corridor and up the stairs, but never stopped her or called for her. All he could do was clench his fist and fall into self-loathing as he mentally apologized for not being able to bring himself to do anything about the awkwardness of the situation.

"Well, well," the aged voice of Zouken reach Shinji's ears as the creature entered the room. "That was a cruel thing you did, Shinji."

"Grandfather." Shinji said in a cold, indifferent tone. He was to blame for the awkwardness that ensued—him and his worms in her body. "I take it you were listening in?"

"Of course you would fail," Zouken said as a matter of fact, answering Shinji's question indirectly. "The Tohsaka heir is a true magus, not an artificial one. She follows tradition and, in accordance with that, she has no sister. Your efforts are only as much a waste as your uncle Kariya's."

"His efforts weren't wasted," Shinji defended. "The fact that he was able to support a Servant, which, from my understanding of the notes in the study, requires a far greater depth of magical energy than most are capable of, indicates that he would have fared better if he had not been required to use a Berserker. Perhaps he would have succeeded if those worms hadn't left him in a state where half his body was useless as well. I've seen him after your treatment and read about what happens with those things writhing around in a male. "

"True, he died with some assistance from the Crest Worms," the elderly Matou admitted. "That was what happened when he rushed through a lifetime of training in a year. He squandered his gift and tried to claim the grail by summoning a Berserker of his own will.

"However, what I am referring to is that he tried to reason with Tokiomi during the war and received a much thorough explanation to what I said, before being burned to near death. Rin, as the Tohsaka heir, will be no different. A magus will stick to their beliefs and traditions, not simply bow before another's opinion. You have no right to question their family's decision."

"It was the wrong decision," Shinji said. "I'll make her accept Sakura, even if I have to grind that so-called tradition to dust."

"A foolhardy effort," the old worm chuckled as he turned to walk away. "Leaving aside the fact that going against hundreds of years of the Art would be blasphemy to any magus of the Tohsaka linage, you cannot force her to do anything. Unlike you, she has an abundance of circuits, far more training, and the resolve of a magus. As far as she knows, you have nothing to do with the Art and for that reason Sakura was taken. It is the sole advantage you have…give up, boy."

"I won't," Shinji said, resolving himself. "For Sakura, I will succeed. Even if I have to…"

He trailed off, by the intention was clear. If Rin wouldn't accept her sister, then he would take everything she had and offer it to Sakura. If she could not hold the Tohsaka name, he would take all their possessions, all their mysteries—everything that she should have had—and give them to her…

Even if he had to kill Rin to do it.

Zouken smiled once Shinji couldn't see his face. Traditions, teenagers, and hormones—it was all too easy to manipulate youngsters by their emotions. And with that done, the die was cast in his favor and the puppet was now on its strings.

Just to twist the knife in, Zouken added, "By the way, the girl will need tending to fairly soon again. If you have that much resolve to do something meaningless, I would suggest you expend some of that into more effort instead of restraining yourself with her. It will only hurt her more in the end if you have to do it many more times because you didn't put forth your best in the beginning…or was that your intention all along? Youngsters these days…"

Shinji gritted his teeth and restrained himself from jumping the old worm in an attempt to throttle him. Storming off to his workshop to get at the transcribed notes in his laptop, he set forth to deal with something he could accomplish right then and there—researching the Tohsaka mysteries in order to defeat Rin.

* * *

_The Next Day_

Shinji looked even paler than normal with bags under his eyes the next day, sitting down through the club recruitment drive going on.

He had spent last night going over the notes he transcribed onto his computer from the study about the Tohsaka Magecraft, gathered from the last few Holy Grail Wars and independent research. What he learned was that Rin would beat him in close combat with absolute certainty. Their family was one just as long as his, except they held far more accomplishments.

At some point during the third war they stole the Gandr Shot from one of the Edelfelts that participated in the war, who managed to summon two aspects of the same servant using Ore Scales. It was a spell that fired a curse of illness with such density and speed it was comparable to a bullet, seeping past physical defense to invoke illness. He'd need a way to deal with the physical embodiment of a curse before anything else.

Then there was the jewel-based craft. Loaded with prana thanks to their ability with the flow and transference of power, it becomes tainted by the spirit of the stones and can be used as a one-off spell or energy reserve. Done over years, it made them high-ranking spells.

The only good news was that Shinji was certain she was limited in the number of jewels she had. They were expensive and a quick look into their remaining assets revealed they were in new ownership, meaning she was barely able to hold on to the illusion of wealth. Thus taking away her family's most dangerous craft would be just a case of avoiding death by jewels that carried elements and could rain hell down until she ran out.

It was only slightly less suicidal than fighting up-close and personal with his body the way it was. Even if he started abusing some of the concoctions he learned to make during his time with Fang Yin, it would leave him strained. But Material Transmutation (Reinforcing, Alteration, and Projection) was something Shinji could do since it was a basic skill—the levels of success varied in general, but he could do everything to an extent.

Reinforcing was the easiest on objects, but he wouldn't dare try a serious immediate reinforcement on his body again after the last time nearly left him screaming in pain as Fang Yin laughed after warning him. Projection was useful for when he needed something like a small stand or tool for some of the medical practices that Fang Yin showed him, but it was worthless to him in the long run with his low number of circuits—a complete waste. In the end, it was the alteration was what he found to be the most useful.

If he used alteration he could shape himself a weapon and then reinforce it to stand up to abuse and armor to weather her blows. Avoid the jewels, attack from a distance with a weapon of some sort, and have something to block her cursed shots. And then, after he dealt with Rin, he needed to deal with the old worm.

Yes, Shinji was definitely going to kill that old worm one of these days. Even if he had to purge every inch of the Matou estate with fire…lots of fire. Maybe he'd catch the Tohsaka estate in the process as well since they were so close…

"Shinji," said a voice from behind the Matou. He turned to see Shirou standing there.

"This had better be good, Emiya," he said annoyed, taken from his fantasy of watching the old worm burn. "If you're trying to pitch for the Kendo club, I'll have to decline. I fear for my health after seeing what you did to that other guy."

"That was an accident," Shirou said, narrowing his eyes slightly in defense. "Fuji-nee sucked me into the place and gave me Tora-Shinai. Once it was drawn, there was no putting it down until blood was drawn."

And blood was definitely drawn. So much blood…they won't even let Shirou back into the club anymore. "They called you the Second Coming of the Tiger."

"I'm telling you, that thing is cursed." Shirou said, recalling the scene his imagination painted while he was using it, including Taiga using it to nail a guy pointing a gun at her grandfather. "Truly, only Fuji-nee could use such a monstrosity without succumbing."

Shinji shrugged. "Either way, I'm not much for using a sword."

"What about Archery?" Shirou offered. "There aren't as many people applying this year according to Fuji-nee, who's the supervisor…"

"Hmm…" Shinji rubbed his chin in thought. He settled on, "I'll go and observe it for now, then decide."

Entering the Archery Club, he settled down and watched a girl of no importance nock an arrow. Watching the scene, Shinji entered his spellcaster's mindset and mentally took in the pros and cons. _If I used alteration I could easily shape the shenfu into arrows for a longer and faster method of using them, attacking outside the range of the Gandr Shot the Tohsaka were known for using after the third war…or was it Fin Shot? Let's see, taking in the shape of the arrows, the length and width of the average shenfu, the initial prana unit costs for each one made, etc…etc…_

_Yeah, I could definitely work with that if I came up with the proper method of compacting the paper to maintain an aerodynamic shape. Although, I should swap out the idea of using solely shenfu arrows and use reinforced and altered newspaper or something—those shenfu arrows could be saved for a triumph cards…and it would save on the costs of regular arrows as well. No sense in wasting money on that end, even if I have more than enough._

_But if she does somehow get in close, I'd need to deal with the Gan—_

"Matou—" Shinji jumped as someone put a hand on his shoulder and spun around. He'd been so lost in his thoughts that he forgot to mind his surroundings. Of course, his sudden reaction caused the owner of that hand to back away in shock for a moment.

She was a classmate of Shirou and Shinji. Tall, with light brown hair and a confident demeanor befitting an older sibling, Ayako Mitsuzuri touched him so casually despite them only knowing each other's name from class. "—easy there…I was just wondering, since you were all fixated on that girl on the shooting range, were going to sign up just to ogle?"

"Well…" Shinji shifted his mindset from that of a spellcaster to that of a normal male and noticed the girl he was staring at was alright, 7 out of 10. "I should learn a martial art and this has the least amount of stress on my body. In fact, being surrounded by lovely ladies would do wonders for my health."

"So it's you, me, and Emiya joining from the same class," she concluded, ignoring that last part.

Shinji looked over to the idiot in question, already making himself useful by attaching strings to bows at the behest of another student. His 'fake janitor' status had become fairly well known in short order. "Honestly, people will continue to take advantage of him like that."

Ayako raised an eyebrow as she crossed her arms. "Don't you take advantage of him as well?"

"That's different," Shinji defended. "I'm his friend, so it's okay when I do it. That's how our relationship works. Besides, I occasionally compensate him for it and never ask him to do something that may take away too much of his free time…plus, he enjoys it. Helping others is like a drug to him."

Ayako simply sighed. "Your definition of friendship leaves a lot to question. Well, if it works for you then I can't interfere. Let's go see if we can't get some practice with a bow today and then spring for uniforms."

* * *

_Hours Later_

"Grrr…" Shinji growled as he gritted his teeth as the arrow missed for who knows how many times. He had yet to hit a single target and everyone else had left the club already, and possibly the school…except for Shirou, in the main building doing his helping thing, and one other person.

"Are you still at it?" Ayako asked, already dressed and ready to leave. "I'm pretty sure that it's time for everything to be put back and the dojo locked up for the night."

"I have permission to use the dojo until later," Shinji told her. Granted, he hypnotized a few people to get said permission and Taiga wasn't there to approve of it, but he did have permission that he could use to shift the blame if he did get in trouble.

"Even if you have permission, you should take a break," she insisted. "You've been at it all day."

"I can't," he stated, readying another arrow. "Emiya managed to not miss even once and it was his first time. For me to simply give up without success is unforgivable, even if I have to shoot 200 arrows a day to do so."

"Wow, you are prideful," she shrugged, before some concern entered her voice. "But you're looking worse and sweating…"

"I'll be fine," Shinji said. "I have a little sister, a year younger, that I made a promise to. For that promise to come to pass, I need to get better at this faster. Stopping without hitting a few times would be a sin, and my body can withstand this much."

"Hmm," Ayako nodded slowly. "So you want to prove you're responsible by showing her that even with your body in such poor condition you can do something if you set your mind and will to it."

He shrugged. "…Sure, let's go with that."

"It sounds like you've got a decent relationship with her," she sighed. "I wish my brother and I were like that. I'm supposed to be looking over him, but he feels the need to be overprotective of me as a man…despite the fact I know plenty of ways to defend myself."

"Sounds rough…" Shinji fired another arrow. It missed. "Tch…"

"You'll be here all night at this rate," Ayako claimed after witnessing the failure again. "Let me help you out."

Though reluctant, Shinji accepted her help. Had this of been simply a hobby, his pride would have had turned her away. But this was preparation against an enemy, whom he would do whatever it took to win.

"Get into position—" Ayako nestled next to him, correcting his mistakes in posture by hand. "—like that. Can you feel the difference in balance?"

"A bit…" Shinji admitted.

"Archery has three portions: Endurance, Accuracy, and Piercing Strength. Accuracy is how well you hit the target. Piercing Strength is the power to pierce the target. Endurance is to maintain the other two. But in truth you aren't shooting the arrow, but you're shooting at your mind that's trying to shoot at the target."

He couldn't help but blink. "That makes…little sense."

"It means you're killing yourself," she corrected. "You're making yourself transparent and one with nature—abandoning your ego. Following eight steps, the purpose of archery is one of mentality where the goal isn't to hit the target, but you only know you succeed if you do. In other words, as a martial artist, you reach a state of nothingness."

"Hmm…" _That sounds like the basics of magic meditation. Erasing yourself and turning into a Magic Circuit in order to modify the world's inner workings. Let nothing distract you, move forward..._ "So, because I've been trying to hit the target, I've been missing because of my ego?"

"Yeah," she nodded, getting closer and attaching her hand to his to steady the bow. "Emiya has already reached that form even before he began. It's strange, but he's kinda strange overall being so unselfish at his age. It would be better if he were a bit like you."

Shinji said nothing, slipping into his meditative state with his eyes open. _Visualize the target. Set the path. Filter out all distraction—_

"_Like that…_" she whispered in his ear, her eyes fixed ahead to match his own sight. "_Now…just let it go._"

His fingers opened from their grip and the arrow cut through the space between and hit the target. Not a bull's-eye, but it did hit. "Finally!"

"Congratulations," she said…and then realized how close they were and separated from him. "It took a while, but you got it done."

Shinji smiled confidently. This was how he could fight against her, by sniping her from outside her attacking range, which was beyond ordinary human eyesight and arm strength. Against Rin Tohsaka, a born magus, Shinji Matou could only hope to overwhelm her with such tactics as fighting from afar, ambushes, and dirty tactics. He could not be her in magical ability overall, but in a specialized circumstance he held a chance.

He'd have to work on reinforcing his eyes to increase the accuracy and arms to handle the bow tension. That meant he was going to have to start practicing on his body again. If he took it slow, he probably wouldn't lose an eye by accident or shred his muscles to pieces…again. "You seem to be as natural as Emiya and a good teacher."

"No, his form is really beautiful…" Ayako shook her head. "In my case, martial arts are a hobby and true nothingness is beyond me at the moment. In all honesty though, I didn't expect you to get a hit on the first time with some guidance. Maybe you're deeper than I thought to have attained such a state in short order."

"Perhaps," Shinji told her, eyes still fixed on the target. It didn't hurt him to maintain a good standing with someone who was useful and Mitsuzuri was straightforwardly honest, like Emiya…but less of a gopher. "I will pay you back for this."

"If you want to pay me back, keep this private session to yourself," she said. "Tohsaka and I have a bet going on and she'd consider two people alone in a club room after hours ammunition. Despite how she's shaping up as Miss Perfect, there's a different person there."

"I'm not fooled by Rin Tohsaka's mask," Shinji said as he nocked another arrow. Following the principles that Ayako showed him, his muscles tensed as he drew back the string and then fired the arrow. It hit a little closer to the center.

"That's good you're not fooled," Ayako said. "I thought you were going to be like one of those guys who idol her because of her appearance or the fact that she lives in a big mansion or something, but I guess when she turned you down it showed you a bit of her second nature."

Shinji scoffed. "You have no idea."

Ayako left after that and Shinji continued to practice until his arms gave out. He briefly wondered if he could just leave the mess as it was and hypnotize whoever came here early in the morning to clean it up. But then came Shirou, the one person he wouldn't need to do anything but ask.

"Emiya," Shinji called out. "Can you handle the clean up? I need to get home and take some medicine."

"Sure," he agreed, unselfishly. "Tell your sister I said hello."

"I will…" Shinji sighed as he left to get changed.

Emiya was an idiot, but nice to have around. Shinji could let down his guard and be frank with him. In return he would occasionally redirect some requests from others to have him do grunt work away so that he could have time to himself…or so he could do Shinji's work. One directs and the other follows. It was a somewhat poisonous friendship, but at least both parties knew their roles.

Plus Sakura seemed to have gained some kind of affection for him after watching him stupidly try to jump a bar repeatedly in addition to defending her a few years ago. Maybe he should see about pairing them up. Emiya wouldn't use or betray Sakura, giving her another bastion of hope until he could free her from the Matou name.

Walking home, a thought crossed his mind on a new mental trigger and he concentrated. The image of an arrow hitting his brain opened the circuits in a single blow. He settled on it, saying, "Well, it's better than what I used before…faster as well."


	4. Chapter 3: Sakura Matou, Sister

**Chapter 3: Sakura Matou, Sister**

* * *

_Outskirts of Fuyuki_

Sakura Matou watched as her brother continued what must've been a daily ritual at this point.

_Thonk._ Ever since he told her he joined the Archery Club, he had come out here every evening on school days and stayed until he felt satisfied with his progress in practicing archery and his mysteries.

_Thonk. Thonk._ He would take a bundle of newspaper that he got from around easily and freely, and work them into the shape of arrows before reinforcing them to become harder. At first he did it by hand, but he seemed to have found a way to do it by alteration now.

_Thonk. Thonk-thonk._ It started at twenty arrows a day, and now he was up to sixty. The process of refining the shape and strength was becoming easier and easier, until he would most likely be able to do it by second nature with any type of paper, no matter the composition.

_Thunk._ It was the same thing as the bow and string, both made of paper spun tight and altered. Analyze the materials, strengthen the base, alter the form, and utilize it to its fullest ability. Over and over, he did it until he ran out of strength.

_Thwamp!_ Shinji would practice thoroughly after school and in the archery club, complaining that he could never match up with Emiya or Mitsuzuri. But that drove him forward, all to reach a goal that he would fire a thousand arrows at and then a thousand-and-one more to reach.

Sakura could only watch as he moved and shot arrow after arrow, touching the hair decoration that he gave her. It had a charm cast on it, supposedly working into his divination tracking spell that he had gotten working. Just one of the many leaps and bounds he grew by, next to working on a new Mystic Code and getting in touch with a craftsman who could make it—someone he called an opium smelling geezer.

A part of her recognized a change in his demeanor and actions. He was getting ready to fight an enemy and Sakura instinctively knew that it was her sister. The battle would likely kill one of them and leave the other near death or soon to follow.

His shikigami were becoming more deadly through the improving of their single-use curses and resistance to elements as he layered on fuwen after fuwen to deal with perceived weaknesses, making sure the overlapping didn't cause unexpected results through miscalculations by trial-and-error. His medicines were designed to enhance his prowess in battle rather than keep him healthy and he seemed to be turning his body into a weapon. His tactics were designed to be harder to hit at a closer range, controlling the distance between him and his opponent.

Sakura didn't want them to fight.

"_Haa…hah…ha…_" Shinji panted as he reached for a different arrow than before. He filled it with his prana, sending it to the tip in a way to delay the activation until it hit. Drawing the paper-spun string back, he let it fly towards the log that had been pierced by dozens of arrows that night.

**Snap!** The 'Snare Arrow' instantly unfurled and then took on a claw shape as it came around and clamped down on the log like a bear trap, the addition of the 'Seal of Restriction' shenfu that was melded into the alteration and reinforcement at the blunt tip of the arrow. Taking a deep breath, he drew a final arrow and nocked it, lining up the shot and letting the arrow fly…

**BLAM!** And the 'Explosive Arrow' turned the log into splinters, rupturing it in a sudden expansion of pressure rather than heat.

Shinji staggered, clutching his chest and wheezing for the moment at the strain of using prana the entire time to strengthen his eyes and muscles after forming the arrows. It was done incrementally, so as to improve but not risk breaking his body apart. Progress was made, but his stamina was nowhere near enough to keep it up as long as he did.

"**Gack—**" Blood escaped his mouth as he coughed violently, and the veins in his neck and temple became pronounced as the circuits appeared just under his skin, glowing with a luminous hue. He wavered on his feet, dropping the makeshift equipment carelessly.

"Nii-sama!" Sakura ran over and caught him before his legs gave out. He was looking paler again and blood was trickling down his lips. "Nii-sama, let's go home. Your body can't take anymore tonight."

And so, Sakura escorted her brother back to their home. The elder was nowhere to be seen, perhaps off killing and pilfering someone else's body for his own use. The pair made their way up to his Workshop, where a futon had been set up for him to lay on since he had begun spending more and more time there.

"Sakura," Shinji pointed to the table that had his Chinese Alchemy materials. There were a variety of gourds, all hollowed out and corked off to be filled with his concoctions. She didn't know what was in them, only that they would help him. "Hand me the yellow gourd."

Sakura did just that and watched as he drank the contents down before sighing. His complexion still looked horrible and he seemed weary, all the excessive practice catching up to him. "You aren't well. Should we have grandfather tell the school you won't be coming tomorrow?"

"No, I'm going…" Shinji told her, taking another drink from the yellow gourd. "I've already missed more days than I'd like and being in this place alone all the time with the old worm would leave me feeling worse than before. Besides, Ayako needs me to help out with a couple of things."

Sakura tilted her head at that. "Ayako…?"

"Mitsuzuri, I mean. Another member of the Archery Club from the same class as me and Emiya," he said, his eyes going unfocused as the medicine took effect. "She's a bit of a tomboy, but she helps out a lot. I owe her quite a bit. When you come to our school, you should join so that you can get know her and Emiya better."

"He wouldn't be interested in me," Sakura said with her lowered, plum-colored hair hiding her eyes from his view. "Even if he was, I would only stain him like I did you."

"_Sakura…_" Shinji lowered his voice in a warning tone. He was tired of hearing her tear herself down.

"I'm so sorry, Nii-sama…" Sakura said, her hands tensing as teardrops started to stain her blouse. "Everything is my fault. I made you take on the Magic Circuit and your body suffered. I defiled you in order to maintain my own sanity. I—"

"ENOUGH!" Shinji barked, making her flinch. Taking a deep breath, he rubbed the bridge between his eyes. "Sakura, from the very beginning, none of this was your fault. I knew the consequences of my actions and still went through with it. I'm not doing this because I have to—I'm doing this because I want to."

That's right. This was the path that Shinji Matou decided to walk on. His uncle only told him to look after her, Shinji decided to free her. Even if he died, he would have no regrets as long as he accomplished his goal.

"And never let the old worm see you cry," he said, before turning away from her on the futon and closing his eyes. "It's what he wants."

* * *

_The Next Morning, Archery Club_

"**What do you mean you're putting two of the three freshmen in our place!?**" One of two second-years exclaimed. They were meeting with the club president, who dropped this bombshell on them all of a sudden.

"They're skilled enough," the current club president said with a shrug. "I mean look at them. Emiya-kun hasn't missed besides one time, which he called. Mitsuzuri-chan helps the other freshmen and is a natural. Matou-san has improved leaps and bounds, and from the muscle he's building on his arms I can assume he's been practicing in private as well, meaning he's serious about this."

Pointing an arrow at the gathered pair, she narrowed her eyes. "You two, on the other hand, are lazy. You take advantage of Emiya-kun whenever I assign you to clean up and haven't even tried to improve. Those three are in here the earliest and leave the latest, making me grateful it's a school competition with no grade-limit. My only regret is that Emiya turned me down because of he claimed to be busy that day."

As the club captain walked off, the pair furrowed their eyes. The duo, Shinoa and Matsuri proceeded to hang back and discuss this turn of events.

"We got to get rid of them," Shinoa said, fingering the bangs of her hair roughly to deal with the agitation. "I'm not going to deal with being known as the one who got replaced by newbies."

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Matsuri asked with her voice flat. "If we touch them, we'll be the ones in trouble. The sick one will probably keel over and the tomboy can probably take us both."

"We just need to set them up," Shinoa muttered as she looked at the pair. They seemed awfully close, the both of them practicing side-by-side. "The regulations say that if you get caught in a fight, break school propriety, or get caught doing something indecent then you're suspended from club activities, meaning no competition."

"You should know that last one," Matsuri pointed out. "Didn't you and your boyfriend get slapped with that penalty last year?"

Shinoa ignored her comment. "I happen to know that the tomboy has an overprotective younger brother since my little sister goes to school with him. If we work the angle right, we can get them both involved on all three accounts by the end of the day."

* * *

_After School Practice_

"Line up the shot and focus on piercing through it," Shinji told another freshman who joined up and still sucked. "Get it right this time or I'll bring over a bunch of girls and have them laugh at you until you hit."

"That had better not have been a legitimate threat," Ayako warned. It was half-hearted, but she was addressing Shinji after all.

Shinji shrugged and pointed to the kid, who let the arrow fly. It hit the target near the edges. "It works. Besides, I wouldn't waste the time and effort trying to corral enough people to humiliate him anyway. "

Wiping the sweat from his brow, he took a deep breath and noted the change in Ayako's expression as she looked at him closely. It was like she was inspecting glasswork, fragile enough to break apart with a touch. "See something you like? Look, but don't touch."

"You're looking a bit pale today," she said with concern, ignoring the obvious bait for a reaction. He often did that when he felt that someone was going to pity him for his heath. "You could have simply have skipped coming today. I could have gotten Emiya-kun to help."

Shinji shook his head. "Emiya keeps himself busy and can't really explain or motivate others in Archery. You said it yourself. He's surpassed you from the beginning since it comes as naturally to him as breathing. You can't teach someone something that comes so naturally, as you can't teach a normal person to become a genius.

"Besides, how could I refuse a request for help from a woman like yourself?" Shinji said, laying on the charm. "Speaking of which, would you care to join me sometime for a meal at this lovely Italian restaurant?"

"Careful Matou-kun," Ayako said with a raised eyebrow. "Your choice of words makes it sound like you're trying to go on a date?"

"Well, I merely see it as taking you out for a nice dinner to repay all the help you've given me over the last few months." He then gave her a small smug smirk. "But if you want it to be a date, then I'd accept. Not many could resist my charm for long, so it was only a matter of time anyway."

She crossed her arms and leaned against a wall. "A wise guy, huh?"

"Only if you want me to be," he replied. "I am serious about repaying you for everything. If eating out makes you uncomfortable it can be something else. Being in debt never sits well for me."

"No, it might be good to eat out at a decent place every now and again…" Ayako scratched her head in thought. "But let's focus on helping the others and winning the competition before anything else."

"Agreed," Shinji stated, before making his rounds. The duo continued until it was time for everyone to leave and stayed late to finish making the targets for the next day…

They were unaware that Shinoa made a certain call and Matsuri tampered with the lock to the door, jamming it. They left the school grounds and let things fall into motion, confident that the next day their positions would be secure.

So when Ayako tried to leave the club while Shinji was getting dressed in the changing room, she was surprised to learn it wouldn't budge. She began beating against the door, hoping for someone to hear her. "Can someone out there hear me!?"

Luckily, one hero-in-the making was passing by. "What's wrong?"

"The door won't open!" Ayako told him.

The hammer of a gun went off as Shirou opened a circuit and used Structural Grasping to see the problem before closing it. Had Shinji been more sensitive to magic, a little closer, and less ill, he would have heard it rather than an almost non-existent buzz. "I see, something is jammed inside of it. I'll need to run and get some supplies to undo the lock."

As Shirou ran off to get his tools, another person had just entered the school grounds and made a beeline for the archery range, just as Shinji had approached her and learned the gist of everything.

"Nee-san, are you in there!?" the newcomer yelled.

Ayako blinked in confusion. "Minori?"

"Who?" Shinji asked.

"My younger brother," she clarified. "He's going to be attending next year."

"Hold on, I got your message!" Minori said. "I'll save you!"

"What message?" Ayako asked.

**WHAM!** The sound of wood starting to splinter came as Minori slammed his shoulder into the door. When it didn't give, he got ready to take a running start for another one.

"Hey! Don't break down the door!" Shirou said, reappearing with the needed tools and glaring at the split wood and damage.

He could fix it with magecraft later on, but the entire thing was starting to draw a crowd and if it was suddenly fixed there would be questions. He dropped his tools in order to stop him from doing any further damage. It devolved fairly quickly in Shirou having to avoid the boy's panicked fist.

About five minutes later—after a struggle and a threat from Ayako—everyone was out and answers were needed.

"Minori!" Ayako barked, her tone serious as she crossed her arms and looked at her brother with a gaze that could petrify a gorgon. "What were you thinking trying to break down the door? Not to mention trying to fight Emiya when he attempted to stop you—in fact, why are you here now?"

"I got a message from Nee-san telling me that some guy named Shinji Matou was forcing her to do…_things_…"

Ayako was taken aback in disbelief. Composing herself and ridding her face of a subtle blush, she pointed to Shinji. "Does he look like he could force me into doing something like that?"

The boy took in the pale and blue-haired with white strands sprinkled about individual who looked as though a strong breeze could knock him over. He had no idea what this Shinji had looked like originally. His mind simply created false images of a beast ravaging his sister that made him drop his normally impassive face around her.

"Not physically…" he admitted a few seconds later. "But he could be taking advantage of your caring nature and guilting you into doing something…"

"Isn't that a bit too much of a coincidence?" Shinji pointed out to the boy, ignoring the last response between the siblings. He could probably take them both and he knew it.

After all, since when was Shinji Matou known to fight fair if he had to? "I was locked into the club room with Mitsuzuri after hours with no one around, leaving people to wonder what happened. At the same time, you received a text from her phone claiming I was abusing her when she could just call the police or manhandle me herself.

"So you ran over to confront me on school grounds, where she would get into trouble by proxy because of you being aggressive, breaking school property, and attacking a student. If you broke the door open to get in or we broke it down to get out, then there was no way to prove that the lock malfunctioned before it was opened and at the very least the two of us would have been kicked out the club and forced to pay for damages. You probably wouldn't be accepted to the school next year either."

Shirou crossed his arms in thought. "You think it's a set-up? That's stretching it a bit…"

Shinji shook his head. "Mitsuzuri, check your phone to see the last time you texted your brother…"

She did just that. "It says about an hour ago. Roughly the same time the club let out and the others were changing while I was still practicing…I didn't write any of this—it doesn't even sound like something I'd write! Who would do this?"

"Probably those two we replaced for the upcoming tournament," Shinji said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Admittingly, there's no way to prove this short of a confession."

"I'll confront them tomorrow about it," Mitsuzuri sighed in annoyance. Being immature was one thing, but getting her brother involved was another.

"No, there's no need for that," Shinji stated. "I have a feeling they'll both apologize to us and drop out of the club afterwards. As for the fact that there were damages to the school's property, though negligible, I'll speak with the principal about it and make sure no one here was to blame."

"Shinji, you make it sound like you're going to do some arm twisting behind the scenes…" Shirou looked at him carefully. "You should go home and rest so you get better. You'll worry your sister otherwise."

"I'd be more concerned about myself if I were you," Shinji told him…before putting on a smug smile. "Taiga would have finished her work some time ago and be expecting dinner. Added to the fact that the Archery Club is under her supervision, this will most likely leave her unhappy and hungry. From what you've told me, you know what happens to those who deny a tiger their meal."

"Crap…" Shirou sighed.

"Well, I'd better take this knucklehead home," Ayako said while pointing her thumb to her brother. "I need to have a long to talk with him about picking fights and damaging property. As for what we'll do tomorrow, we'll see. Sorry for the trouble, Emiya-kun. Take care of yourself, Matou-kun."

"Same, Mitsuzuri," he said.

Then, once Shirou left, Shinji's eyes narrowed and he went back inside the Archery Club. Since the uniforms were kept there, finding some stray strands of hair from the pair he was certain orchestrated this would be easy. From there, a simple tracking spell to find them and little chat would be in order…and hypnotism…and blackmail.

Shinji Matou was the worst person to have as your enemy, as they would soon learn.

* * *

_At Shirou's Home_

Typically speaking, bad things happened when Shirou was late making Taiga dinner. And he was late tonight. On top of that, when she learned he was in a one-sided fight and there was damage to the club she was the supervisor of—meaning she'd get an earful later from the principal—she was less than pleased.

Which is why he found himself in the dojo at his home, holding a shinai and facing off against the angry tiger who wielding her favored weapon that craved blood. He'd heal quickly enough, sure. But pain was pain, dammit!

"Fuji-nee, you're overdoing it tonight! Have mercy!" Shirou winced as he tried to stop the flurry of blows that rained down. "You're a national-level kendoka! Isn't going at it this hard a bit overkill?"

"Liar!" she yelled, delivering a blow to his side, thigh, and shoulder in short order. "You were holding back on me until now! I saw you copying me during that time at the Kendo Club!"

He narrowly blocked a blow and wheezed, "I was?"

"It was a little off, but otherwise fine!" Taiga let her blade do the rest of the talking, catching him in the ribs again and then the inner thigh to hit the soft meat there. She'd avoid the hands and arms; he needed those afterwards to cook for her.

"Ow! Seriously, Fuji-nee, at least use a normal shinai!" Shirou screamed without thinking. In his defense, pain loosened lips. "That thing has been cursed since you beat down an armed gunman with it!"

Taiga froze at hearing that, the blade just barely not striking his head. The sudden change from Tiger to suspicious was almost immediate and sudden enough to catch Shirou's attention. "Fuji-nee?"

"Shirou," she said in an eerily quiet manner. "How do you know that?"

"Huh?" Shirou said. His mind, on the other hand realized he let something important slip. _That really happened?_

"That I used this shinai against someone who shot my grandpa and…" Taiga shook her head at recalling what happened afterwards. There was a reason that her grandfather didn't have her around during Yakuza business. "Did Kiritsugu tell you?"

"Y-yeah…" Shirou lied, seeing no way out of it without hypnotizing her.

Taiga…looked sad. "He promised he wouldn't tell anyone…"

"Well, Dad was sick and knew he didn't have long," Shirou continued the lie, feeling worse and worse about dragging it out. "I was scared of only having you to watch over me, so he said that you were dependable, even if someone were to point a gun at me…"

"But what happened afterwards…" Taiga looked at the ground, tears starting to come out as she recalled her grandfather's men opening fire and the blood that followed. So much blood, covering her from head to toe as she stared wide-eyed and froze. "He promised me…"

"Fuji-nee, look at me," Shirou said, activating the circuits in his eyes to put her to sleep when she did. He caught her before she hit the floor and prepared to wipe the last few minutes from her memories. She would wake up feeling hungry and demanding dinner without thinking that Kiritsugu betrayed her trust. "Sorry about reminding you of something terrible."

It was an honest mistake. He had thought the vivid images that flowed into him when he wielded the sword had just been a figment of his imagination. But it was actually in the history of it instead and he had been drawing from it on a subconscious level…

"_You were copying me fine during that match,_" were the words Taiga said. He didn't notice that either. Had he been drawing from the experience of the blade itself as well? Looking at Tora-Shinai, he decided to try a little experiment once Taiga had been fed and rested.

* * *

_A Few Weeks Later…_

Shinji frowned as he got dressed out of his archery clothing and made his way back to the crowd that had gathered in the aftermath of the tournament. He was aiming for top three at least, but barely made it past the top fifteen instead. In retrospect, he should have cheated and used his magecraft, but Rin Tohsaka was there to support Ayako and he couldn't tip his hand just yet.

"Nii-sama, you did well," Sakura consoled her brother after being allowed on the grounds to watch the match.

Ayako pitched in her opinion as well. "In a competition that size it's amazing for someone who only started out so soon to score so high. Not many people could have managed that, so cheer up."

He gave her a look of disbelief. "I don't want to hear that from the person who got 5th place."

"Well, it's not like I wasn't aiming for 1st," she responded. There was a note of discontent since she really hated being not being on top during a competition. "Anyway, let's just celebrate that we made a good showing."

"Agreed!" Taiga jumped in unannounced. "Shirou will cook a celebration dinner for us doing so well!"

Shirou blinked. "Wait, what?"

Shinji saw and opportunity and took it. "Thanks for volunteering Emiya. You wouldn't mind if Sakura joined us as well, would you?"

"No, but—"

Sakura fidgeted a bit. "I couldn't impose on you all…"

"That's fine, isn't it?" Shinji nudged his sister. "You should get to know your future school mates better."

Shirou scratched his head and sighed in defeat. Well, it wasn't like he didn't like cooking. "He's right. Please come eat with us, Sakura-chan."

Sakura felt as though her heart could stop in secretive delight. "Th-then I'll look forward to your cooking, Emiya-senpai."

"Senpai?" Shirou looked at Shinji at the term.

"Sakura will be coming here next term, so you're her Senpai," he told him, stating the obvious.

"Calling me Shirou would be fine as well," he said without thinking.

"I can't do such a thing!" Sakura said with a blush.

Shirou only noticed the red hue and asked if she was feeling well. His skull was so thick he failed to put together that it would be considered something intimate to call him by his first name.

Shinji only shook his head and sighed. He had pegged his friend as, well, an idiot and had long since grown used to it. Well, either way, it was a chance for him to try to get them closer.

* * *

_With Rin_

"Congratulations on your position," Rin Tohsaka said to Ayako. But, while her mouth was moving, her eyes went passed her friend and instead darted to the plum-haired girl who was next to Shinji and the Fake Janitor.

As Rin watched her sister for the first time in years, she was filled with various emotions:

Guilt for abandoning her in the path of the Magi. Sorrow for losing a sister to share her now empty life with. Relief that she had a loving brother and happiness…and just a shade of envy that she lacked someone to confide in and cheer her as he did.

Not that she needed it. She was a Magus and walked the path of death. She didn't need someone holding her hand, not even that fake priest.

She took the time to note the differences, such as how her hair was closer to Shinji's palette, a plum-color to go with the blue of his family, minus the white in his hair. She supposed it was from their family craft, but she lacked intimate knowledge of the Matou arts.

As Ayako left to join the others at Taiga's insistence, Rin walked the path alone to her home.

It had been enough to see her sister in good health.

* * *

_At Shirou's Home_

Kiritsugu knew his way around bounded fields. He knew how to make them and how to break them. It was somewhat of a specialty of his.

So it was no surprise that despite the two Matou entering the one around his home they felt nothing.

As everyone else took a seat while Shirou cooked, Shinji arranged it so that Sakura had a seat to the left of where Shirou would be, while Taiga occupied the right side. He himself sat between Ayako and Issei, who came along for some reason or another at Shirou's insistence.

Once in the kitchen, the knives sung a beautiful song as he worked his culinary magic and prepared a feast fit of a king. He had pride in his cooking. It was a pride so strong it would transcend death, he was sure.

It only took one bite to have everyone acknowledge his skills.

"Emiya-kun's as good at cooking as he is Archery," Ayako stated as she took a bite out of the food gathered onto her plate.

"His diligence shows," Issei agreed.

Sakura covered her mouth in amazement. "Senpai, this is amazing…"

_He's moving in when he and Sakura gets together,_ Shinji thought. Even he couldn't deny the workings of Emiya's skill in the kitchen. _He's handy with a wrench and a knife, some formal training and he'd be the perfect butler._

As the meal went mostly silent from then on until everyone had cleaned their plates and had seconds, Ayako looked around at the Japanese-style mansion and made small talk. "I've gotta say I'm surprised Emiya-kun has such a big home. I always imagined you were the hard working type that dwelled in a more modest abode."

Shirou snorted. "You should see where Shinji and Sakura live. Fuji-nee had me bring his homework over one night he was sick and I saw they had a manor in the foreign homes district. Besides, I'm not wealthy or anything and I make my own money from working, this was my father's before he passed away."

_You're lucky the old worm was away at the time,_ Shinji thought. The last thing he wanted was for someone like Emiya to meet his grandfather. He had a feeling Sakura felt the same way.

"It is lucky you did not meet that fox woman along the way," Issei stated while thinking on the subject. "Their residence is listed close to the Tohsaka residence as well."

"We're one of the oldest families in Fuyuki along with the Tohsaka, so naturally we'd live close to one another," Shinji said, his tone hiding his emotions when Rin's family was mentioned. Suddenly he felt a kinship with the man who seemed to be wary of her. "Anyway, it's true we have some wealth, but we don't see the need to flaunt it. Carelessly wasting money will only leave debt and regrets."

Issei nodded. "You're surprisingly frugal. It is refreshing that one of such a background would think like that."

"I have my aunt to thank for that," Shinji stated. Fang Yin had started out from nothing and pounded it into him that wasteful spending wasn't tolerated in the time he lived there. "I won't make the same mistakes my father did…that being said, I do allow myself to indulge a little occasionally for company or to repay favors."

Ayako noticed his eyes wandering over to her. "I'll keep that in mind."

Issei gave him a look of warning. "Then you should be cautious. There are many who would take advantage of someone with such standing. I have heard whispers after your donation to the Archery Club."

Sakura tilted her head slighty in confusion. "What donation?"

"It's nothing," Shinji said.

Taiga begged to differ. "Shinji-kun, you're so modest. I thought you would have at least told Ayako-chan and Shirou that you paid to have the equipment replaced."

Shinji shook his head. To be honest, he had done it so that the incident involving her brother would be swept under the rug. Money had its own magic after all. "Like I said, it was nothing."

He then returned a gaze to Issei. "Anyway, I'm not foolish enough to let myself fall for the fake charms being doled out by the girls in class." As an afterthought he mentally added, _Mind you, I'm not above taking advantage of it._

The after-dinner chat continued on after that, the conversation light as they exchanged pleasantries…blissfully unaware of the wheels that were turning the background.

This would be one of the few times everything was peaceful as the Greater Grail beneath the city began to awaken and the die of fate was cast. Even now, despite the oddity of the war itself starting soon, a call was being made to secure the Matou's place in the war.

* * *

_In China_

Fang Yin frowned as she answered her phone, only to learn who was on the other end. "What do you want, you old worm."

"Now, now, is that anyway to speak to your nephew's grandfather?" Zouken's voice made her skin crawl. "You should be more grateful. After all, you were only able to carve out a living thanks to the money the Matou contributed to you."

"Get to the point or I will hang up," she snarled.

"The Holy Grail War will be starting sooner than before," Zouken said, skipping to the point. "The summoning catalyst I need resides in your country, and I have no doubt you would have some contacts capable of finding it."

Fang Yin scoffed. "Why should I help you?"

"The grail will choose a Matou, as it always has, and while the girl will be the most likely choice I know that the boy will fight in her place regardless," he stated. "Considering he will take to the battlefield, I merely wish to secure a higher chance of their continued survival by ensuring he has a Servant capable of lasting in battle…unless you wish to lose your last link to your sister."

Fang Yin growled silently in agreement. That year together had given her a soft spot for the brat. She should have known he would take advantage of it. "State your terms."

"You will retrieve the artifact I require," Zouken continued. "I am willing to pay any price and you shall be compensated as well. Get in touch with whomever you need, but tell no one of why you are seeking it. You have a year at the longest…"


	5. Chapter 4: Preparations for War

**Chapter 4: Preparations for War**

**Note: For Shinji's combat outfit, basically imagine Shinji looking like The Hood from Arrow, but with a deep blue shade and mask.**

* * *

_That Italian Restaurant_

**Close to a year had passed.**

Shinji had _finally_ gotten Ayako to agree to go with him to that restaurant he frequented after much more effort than anyone would expend in repaying a debt, as he claimed. So, dressed in casual clothing, they both enjoyed the cuisine and made small talk.

"This place is nice," Ayako said while waiting for dessert. "I can't believe it took so long for you to talk me into it—but this doesn't mean we're going out or anything!"

"Fair enough," Shinji said simply, hands interwoven and hiding his smile like he had taken lessons from Gendo. "I can be patient until I've won you over with my charm."

"Sure, sure. In the meantime we're just the Captain and Vice-Captain of the Archery Club. You keep the pressure off your sister and I keep my brother off of you."

"What is his problem with me?"

"It's because he doesn't trust you and you're with Emiya-kun all the time," she explained. "Do the math. He likes Sakura-chan. She obviously likes Emiya-kun. You keep trying to push the pair together."

Shinji feigned innocence. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Even I can see you're trying to set your sister up with Emiya-kun," Ayako continued. "You always have him help her, despite telling me that someone as natural as him at it couldn't teach someone normal. You try and have them eat lunch together, let her go to his house in morning to learn to cook, take care of him after he had that burn on his arm…need I go on?"

"You're quite perceptive," Shinji admitted as someone brought Gelato and set it on the table. "That's one of the qualities I find attractive in you to be honest. Still, I can't figure out why you're so hesitant to go out with me?"

"Well, for starters, I don't see what you like about me," Ayako said. "I'm kinda a tomboy and I know it. There are plenty of others who would be more attractive and submissive to a guy like you."

"Most of the girls who throw themselves at me are only interested in the wealth I have and cover up who they really are. You don't and I find that endearing," Shinji admitted. "You don't try to hide anything behind make-up or a false mask. Emiya and you have that quality in that you're both honest in who you are, making you trustworthy."

"Huh…" Ayako tried to keep the color off her cheeks as her Vice-Captain admitted something so frank honestly. "Uh, back to the second reason. You're wearing a mask yourself. You and Tohsaka are alike in the fact that both of you seem to have two sides. "

"Who knows?" Shinji said, not bothering to deny it. "Maybe one day you'll see the other me. But there's no guarantee you'll like what you find."

Ayako shrugged. "Well, if we ever get to that point, we'll see."

They finished their dessert in silence and then departed the restaurant, with Shinji escorting Ayako her home as they made their way through the collection of buildings that lined the illuminated streets that stood out from the spacious and vast manors in the foreigner's district that he lived in, on the opposite side of the bridge.

Passing them were others of varying ages, some working salarymen and women coming from a tiring but well-paying job that kept them fed. Others were youngsters around their ages, dressed in variety of outfits, going to the still-present arcades, or singing Karaoke. The few that were most likely to cause trouble were deterred by the warding talisman he had hidden inside his jacket.

Eventually they stopped in front of a modern apartment. In the second story window there was figure watching, just beyond the curtains and trying to remain unnoticed. He failed in that aspect.

"Looks like my brother is waiting for me," Ayako said exasperatedly. "Thanks for the meal and dessert. Whatever debt you owed has been paid."

"Then the next time it'll be a date between us," Shinji said wryly, getting a small laugh from her as she grabbed her doorknob. He gave her small wave. "Good night, Mitsuzuri-san."

"Good night, Matou-kun," Ayako replied warmly.

* * *

_Shirou's Home - Dojo_

**Crimson flared as the Dojo was filled with the harmonious clashing of wooden blades.**

"RAAAAHHH—" Overwhelming bloodlust consumed the hero-wannabe, a strange and foreign sensation he'd never in his memory experienced. He bit down the bloodlust slightly, but it doubled as his opponent blocked his blade. How dare they!

He swung, blade in hand, against the opponent who he couldn't seem to beat. She was always a step ahead of him. It was as if she could read the way his body moved and how it would react.

Pain flared in his shoulder as the enemy struck with a thrust that made his own strike come up short. Moving like a fearsome beast, the enemy's blade was its claws. It used them to great proficiency in tearing apart his flesh.

Head, ribs, thigh, side of the knee, shoulder, and chest—the claws struck so fluidly that they flowed as one and brought Shirou to his knees. The final strike to the forearm made him relinquish his blade…

And the bloodlust was quelled inside his mind.

"_He-heh…_" The childish voice of the enemy chuckled. Prowling over to the defeated swordsman, his guardian and expert kendoka, Taiga, retrieved her favorite blade from the floor and rested it on her shoulder. "I win again, Shirou. This time you have to make me triple portions."

"As agreed, Fuji-nee…" Shirou stood up and fought down the desires to scrub his body and mind clean after using that…that _thing_ called a shinai. How she could wield it or ignore the blatant bloodlust coming off of it in waves, Shirou had no clue. Perhaps she was a psychic or somehow removed from the logic of fearing such a thing.

"But you really were copying me," she stated. "I don't brag, but keeping up with me is really good considering you didn't have any formal training. Kiritsugu would be proud."

Shirou had been wielding the fearsome Tora- Shinai while his sister-figure wielded a normal one and they had a match. The third one this week. How did this oddity occur, you ask?

Well, after the fiasco that led to him drawing knowledge from the blade accidentally, he asked to borrow it and purposely delved into it. Taiga obliged as long as they could spar as a stress reliever for her. Shirou made for an excellent punching bag, after all.

"Ah, but maybe I should have went a little easier on you." Taiga said as an afterthought. "Sakura-chan won't be happy if she finds out you're too bruised to enjoy her date."

Once again, Shirou's ignorance of the female mind reared its ugly head. "Huh?"

Taiga looked at him as if he grew a second head. "Well, you're cooking for Sakura-chan tomorrow right?"

"Yeah," he said.

Taiga asked, "And you'll both be alone?"

"I guess…" he admitted.

"And there'll be candles, right?"

Shirou_ still_ didn't see where it was going. "Shinji said it would be good for her to relax after trying so hard in the Archery Club and improve her mood."

Her eyebrow arched at the sheer magnitude of ignorance. She'd suspect that he was lying about not realizing where it was going, but he wasn't that good at it. "And you don't see what any of that implies? Really?"

The answer to that was obvious. "…That he's worried for her health?"

"…" Taiga closed her eyes and shook her head. When she opened them, there was steel in them and she attacked with renewed vigor. "**Shirou, you idiot!**"

The tiger pounced and unleashed its claws once again on the hero-wannabe. "Ow! Fuji-nee, what'd I do!?"

"I'm going to beat you over the head until you get it!"

The beating—I mean lecture on how not to undermine a girl's feelings continued well into the night.

* * *

_The Next Day - At the Matou Manor_

"Emiya, you idiot," Shinji said as he read the text message on his phone from Taiga.

It was Sunday night, and he had just finished up his notes on an onmyouji magecraft ritual he had appropriated not too long ago. When he had orchestrated this date as a part of his long-term plan, he needed to get her out of the way for them to be alone. To his surprise, she was on-board the 'Sakura and Emiya Love-Love Plan' as she called it.

He briefly considered hypnotizing Shirou into getting a clue. "No, Sakura would never forgive me for toying with his brain. Plus, with his head being so thick, it might be impossible anyway."

"Nii-sama?" Sakura called as she entered the living room while dressed in a white dress with a blouse over it. In her hair was the decoration charm Shinji had given her, inert and undetectable to a magus until within the presence of magecraft or Shinji activated it to track her. That way Rin couldn't sense it and find out what he was. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing at all," Shinji said as he texted Taiga to give the pair more time by having the idiot meet her halfway. "Give it your best and enjoy yourself, Sakura."

A blush crossed her face. "Alright. Then I'll be leaving."

Shinji watched her leave out as the sun set and then headed to his workshop.

To Sakura's pleasant surprise, her senpai was waiting to meet her halfway while slightly winded after his guardian had booted him out the door. He held her hand as they walked, as per the orders of Taiga, who silently cheered on the pairing before heading out to eat—all expenses paid by Shinji Matou. Sakura was worth any cost.

Neither of them noticed the plain, white van trailing them.

The men inside the van were just a nameless father and son in the grand scope of things. They happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and had a vehicle that could get the job done. So they were hypnotized and given a mission:

"_Retrieve the Matou Heir once she was far from home."_

Inside the van were three hounds that slept in waiting, to ensure the secrecy of his task by silencing any witnesses. Then, when they saw them standing outside the Emiya household, the road all but deserted, the two pawns saw an opening and took it. Blowing the dog whistle they'd been given, the doors of the van opened and the hounds moved.

The suddenly flux of magical energy wafting from the hounds caught both parties off-guard as their attention was focused on the imminent threat. Moving swiftly as the hounds circled the boy to separate them, the passenger managed to get out and cover the girl's mouth and nose with a rag. The chloroform on it was given to him since using magecraft on a magus would be far more difficult compared to holding a drugged rag to her face until she stopped moving and he shoved her into the van.

With abnormal strength and a howl of rage, the boy managed to reach the side of the van and lay a hand on it as the hounds seemed to struggle to tear off his legs and other arm. One of the hounds settled for body-checking him into the entrance of his home and away from the truck. The rest chased after him to tear out his throat.

The pair took off with the girl inside.

* * *

_With Shirou_

A hound lunged for his throat.

He saw it coming and was prepared, having applied _Reinforcement_ to his body the moment the hounds jumped him originally. He blocked with his forearm and winced as it managed to barely break the surface of his skin that was as hard as iron. These creatures would have destroyed and devoured an ordinary human with ease.

"**Get off!**" His reinforced fist quickly smashed down on its skull and the familiar ceased functioning. The second and third ones attacked from the left and back. They met with hands of steel as well and fell as quickly. Shioru looked up to see that the van was gone…and with it Sakura.

She had been kidnapped.

He didn't chase after the van since the rune he managed to place before being thrown into his own home would lead him to her. He could tell that they were long gone, heading towards the more distant coastline between the temple and his home, and he wouldn't catch up on foot.

The biggest problem was the fact that those familiars indicated he was facing a magus. Therefore he couldn't just rush in stupidly. He needed to arm himself first. _Then,_ he could rush in stupidly and save Sakura as quickly as possible.

He grabbed a bokken and rushed to his workshop to don the coat of the late Magus Killer, lined with enchantments to protect his flesh. It was not because he was afraid to get hurt. It was because if his body broke then he could not save the one who needed saving.

Shirou then tore away a veil covering his means of transportation. It was a motorcycle that he received for his birthday after all the hard work he'd done for the Yakuza without asking for anything in return in keeping up their vehicles and equipment. He did not ask for it, but he did not refuse it.

Mentally thanking his big sister-figure and her family for the gift, he tore after them.

It was time to be a hero.

* * *

_With Shinji_

Shinji's charm, which he had given to Sakura as a hair decoration, was tripped at the presence of magecraft and set him into a state of high-alert. The first thing he did was try her cellphone. There no response.

So he activated the tracking array on the table with a map of Fuyuki.

The manikins that marked the four directions lifted themselves off the table and began to spin in place as a luminous glow radiated from within like lanterns. The light speared from one to another to create a boundary and then each shot a ray into the center of the map of Fuyuki that pinned itself down at a single point that began moving. That point was the decoration he gave Sakura.

She was moving to a point between the coast and temple, the thin lining of forest making it ideal for a private coastal home. Before Shinji could mobilize, Zouken's voice came from the outside of the closed door to the workshop.

"It would appear that you noticed Sakura has been kidnapped," Zouken stated. Shinji never once doubted he had a method keeping track of her. "It is the work of another magus."

"Why would a magus kidnap her?" Shinji demanded an answer. She should have been with…Shirou! "What happened to the boy she was with?"

All he got was a flat, "Who can say? Given the abruptness of the kidnapping and usual behavior of magus…"

Shinji knew what he was implying by trailing off. Shirou was most likely dead. The only consolation was that it had been quick. Shinji focused on who could be saved at the moment: His sister. "Why haven't you done something yet?"

"The only means of rescuing the girl I possess would be to unleash the worms that swim in her body," he lied to Shinji. "The damage done would be…immense and a last resort. Therefore, you get one chance boy. Go and bring her back."

_Show me that you would be capable of the coming war, boy,_ Zouken thought with a smile. _Fail and die as your uncle had, widening the cracks in the girl. Succeed and become a more useful pawn._

The sound of his footsteps and cane on the wooden floors echoed in the hall as he left to go back to his worm-filled basement that he used to practice his craft as Shinji howled. "**I should have expected nothing else from you!**"

The arrow was fired within his mind and hit the mark. The artificial magus let his magical energy roar as the circuits came to life. Activating a mystery known as '_Armament_' he formed his armor.

Construction paper that had been enchanted and inscribed with fuwen came to life and swarmed his body, clinging like glue had been applied and changing as _Alteration_ was performed to link them together and give them a fabric like quality as they took the form of a pants and a leather-like hoodie with a deep hood to cover his hair and obscure his face.

Next he armed himself, forging the bow, the quiver, and arrows using magecraft and fuwen to blend them together so seamlessly they looked as if they were a single object instead of many. Looking over his larger shikigami, Shinji grabbed the small container holding the origami manikin of the phoenix to aid him.

Finally, he reached out for the mask he had received as a so-called graduation present form Fang Yin. Fixing the mask onto his face to hide the tears of rage at the presumed death of his sole male friend, he grabbed the knife he used when preparing his medicines. He was going to shove it into the magus' heart after putting a dozen arrows into his body.

Running to the rooftop he filled the container with prana and crimson flames swallowed the origami. He tossed the bottled flame over the edge and jumped after it. "**Come, Zhuque!**"

The window of his workshop burst opened as the paper constructing the shikigami dissembled itself and reformed around the flame. Beneath his feet, the vermillion bird—the phoenix of the south that resembled the evening twilight—took flight. The magecraft would render it unnoticeable to non-magi, so he didn't worry about the majestic bird taking to skies and rushing towards the horizon that was dyed the color of twilight as well, the colors matching its own.

It was time to rescue his sister.

* * *

_With Sakura_

Sakura awoke with a splitting headache and her arms tied around her back. The worms and circuits in her body could break down foreign elements true enough, but it took time and something was hindering them. Her mind raced as she took in surroundings and noticed she was in a parlor that was lavishly decorated.

"You've finally awakened, have you?" a rather smooth voice came from behind her. She sat up and came to see a man dressed in a suit with a glass of wine between his fingers, swishing the contents around. "That's good. For a second I was worried you would be damaged and useless for my plans."

"Who…are you?" Sakura asked, keeping her cool.

"My name is Reginald Adeliz, Matou Heiress," he gave a slight bow to look into her eyes. A smirk carved itself onto his face in short order. "A first-rate magus with blue-blood circuits and your new master."

Now, Sakura was by no means weak of heart. True, Shinji's affection had softened her experiences when around him, but he was a spellcaster. To this man, who was a magus like her sister who ignored her, like her father that threw her away, and like her grandfather who abused her, her heart was sealed up and her will indomitable.

She became cold as ice. "What exactly are you implying?"

He pulled out a piece of parchment and unraveled it, before releasing it and letting it drift down in front of her. "A Self-Geas Scroll of sorts, modified to fit my standards. I'll save you the trouble of reading and just skip to the point. The contract will have you serve as my loyal servant during the Holy Grail War."

A geas—a curse of coercion that binds one to their word, on top of that a self-geas scroll leaves them with an unbreakable contract enforced by their own circuits. The nature of the contract would not allow her to escape should she sign it of her own will.

After glancing over it, Sakura stated, "The Holy Grail War won't start again for decades. Why now?"

"Could it be that you really don't know?" Reginald asked in mild amusement, before revealing his Command Seals. "If you require further proof, allow me to introduce my Servant. Caster, appear before me."

**Inhuman**—in every sense of the word, this sensation was unmistakable in that it wasn't even remotely human. The worms in her body became active in the wake of the air rippling, distorting from the inhumane magical energy of a legend that had ascended beyond space and time to a throne, her deeds having become renowned as the Age of the Gods passed. Her appearance matched that of a witch reminiscent of fairy tales, and not the nice ones.

The Servant appeared with a small smirk on her face, superiority lacing her voice as she spoke. "Good evening, young lady. I look forward to working with you in future."

Gathering herself mentally, as much as she could under circumstances, Sakura shook her head. "I won't sign."

"Ah, defiance rears its ugly head," the magus shook his head, "Caster will take her time in breaking you until you willingly take on the Geas. As history has shown, she has her…ways, of doing so. I sincerely urge you to reconsider your predicament."

The room was silent for a moment as he awaited the girl's consent that would not come. It was only broken prematurely when Caster felt her field being penetrated and conjured her crystal ball.

"Master…" Caster called. "It would appear we have an intruder. A magus coming from the skies on a construct that appears to be a rather large…shikigami, is the term in this age I believe."

Sakura had a good poker face. It was one not easily seen through. But, her brother was heading into what amounted to a fortress guarded by the bane of modern magi everywhere—a creature that could weave spells from the Age of the Gods. The mask broke for a moment and it was all Caster needed to forge a plan.

"Master, the girl's reaction indicates she knows the magus approaching," Caster warned. "Should you go and capture him, he could be leverage and speed up the process of coercing her into the Geas. You may even gain two pawns rather than one."

"Can't you handle that?"

"I need to prepare my domain for the ensuing ritual," she stated. "Surely you are not frightened by such a meager magus? With one of such blood as yourself, any backwater magus in this land cannot match your skill. After all, you had enough talent to summon myself before the two families that reside here, only behind the Einzberns."

Step one in getting a noble magus to do what you want: Feed their ego. Medea would admit the man she reluctantly called Master had a decent plan, but it was far from enough in her eyes. And besides, after spending time under the whims of the Gods, she had just about enough of being controlled.

"Very well!" Reginald stated as he rose to his feet. "Bestow upon me my weapon and I shall bring them to my heels."

With a mere wave of her hand, the air distorted yet again. Within her grasp rose a sword that seemed beyond the elegance of a man such as him, a blade adorned in an inhumanely golden decoration and a pure-white hilt. She presented the blade to him, a mystic code he had found but was unable to use as anything but a symbol of his supposed authority.

He flourished the blade, the air weaving itself around him. Satisfied with the result, he walked off to ready the defenses of his workshop and welcome the fly to his parlor.

"Now then, young lady," Caster ran her fingers across Sakura's cheek as her Master vanished, "I can sense something inside you that's very interesting. You will…"

She trailed off as she sensed her field being penetrated again. Another person had entered the field and Caster watched her crystal ball as it showed Shirou Emiya getting off his motorcycle some distance from the manor and hiding it before rushing towards the home. _I may as well keep him entertained while my Master is hopefully being driven into a corner. Either way, today will be productive._

* * *

_With Shinji_

Shinji frowned beneath his mask as he crossed a boundary field and his sense of hearing became a liability. Like nails on a chalkboard the constant scraping of magical energy dampened his ability to sense it. It was only because the shikigami let of a shill warble as it sensed the incoming danger that he noticed the almost invisible rippling of air blades that attempted to slice Zhuque apart.

"Avoid them!" Shinji ordered as Zhuque flapped its wings to avoid the barrage of wind blades. When it became obvious that the shikigami couldn't keep up on its own, he took the reins by placing a hand to where its control talisman was. The shikigami turned on a dime, making sharp right angle turns to clear the blades.

Nature and physics dictated that such a movement was impossible. A sharp turn of that nature should have been impossible. But because he was a Matou, it was. The Matou were blessed with the water element, which held much versatility, including altering and manipulating the flow of prana.

His shikigami was a mass of stored prana, fed through a ritual over time and allowed to sit within a field that prevent it from diffusing at the world's will. Thankfully his armor had charms on it to deal with the whiplash and g-forces, so he didn't black out. But his concentration did lapse as his head felt the strain of maintaining the flow and his consciousness wavered a bit. One of the blades clipped his shikigami's rear section as they went over the manor.

Leaping off the back of his shikigami as it fell at an angle to the forest below, he nocked an arrow and fired towards the glass of the skylight. The arrow pierced through, the force spreading out and shattering the area around it, and kept going until it embedded itself into the floor and the fuwen on the arrow's head was triggered and inscribed itself on the floor.

Gravity was distorted in a narrow perimeter around the arrow, expanding as a pillar of light that blew the rest of the skylight's glass into the air and, within that boundary, gravity lowered to the extent he landed safely. It was not simply lowered, but spread out with the area outside the immediate perimeter was surrounded by a boundary field that contained the excess gravity. When the mystery faded and the world crushed the boundary field as unnatural, the weight that had been spread snapped back beneath his feet and dug into the floor around it as glass rained down like a glimmering shower.

Standing within the domain of the enemy he did not know, Shinji Matou nocked another arrow and prepared to kill anything that got in his way of rescuing his sister. Starting with the familiars that burst through the door…

* * *

_With Shirou_

"RAAGGHH—" Shirou swung the bokken down, his muscles tensing and releasing as they brought the reinforced wood about to smash inhuman bone with a hardy crunch. His hands and arms reverberated as the impact resounded through the practice blade.

Then he fell back and prepared to deal with the rest that had gathered, refusing to let them surround him as he face a number of Dragon Tooth Warriors—golems made of, well, dragon teeth. He would admit that he was taken off-guard when he saw them originally and that nearly got his head cut off.

He quickly learned from that mistake. Through the trees that line the ground he fled, refusing to hang out in the opening where they could surround him. At least forcing the numbers to file through the trees would give him—

_Clackle-clack!_

Shirou ducked into a knee slide as he narrowly avoided losing his head again from when one of the warriors swung a blade from behind a tree that was in his path. It had the privilege of shattering two that were following behind, while he spun and slammed the blade of the wooden sword onto the assailant.

He gritted his teeth, lamenting that his magical sense, filtered through smell, was faulty due to the strange boundary field that had been erected. He was fighting blind, but that wasn't enough to deter him. He would smash every one of them in his way and then make his way to Sakura, defeat the magus behind them, and get his charge home safe.

He would be a hero who could save everyone.

**He swore it!**

Fueled by belief, he forced himself onwards until and through a dozen more until the sound of crunching wood spelled the end of his weapon as it rained splinters and the force of the strike knocked him back against a tree.

A single Dragon Tooth Warrior closed in for the kill and swung down its blade, the hunt over and intent to kill obvious…

Yet there was still steel in Shirou's eyes.

* * *

_With Shinji_

Shinji found himself, after leaving the dissipating corpses of hound familiars in pieces from explosive arrows, facing a man adorned in expensive garbs that introduced himself in a pompous manner and let loose an arrow the moment the magus' name left his lips. After all, all he needed something to label the corpse as he dug up information on why the deceased bastard abducted his sister. To his mild surprise, the arrow was deflected by what seemed to be a barrier of air weaving itself around the man like armor, constantly moving and spiraling.

The man then outstretched his hand and a bulwark of wind was turned into a bludgeon that knocked him down the hallway, to the corner, and embedded him into the wall that began to crack under his weight. He pulled himself out of it and fired arrow after arrow, before running down the turn and out of the magus's sight.

"Stop prolonging the inevitable," the magus declared, his pace slow and glacial as he took mere steps while believing in the solidity of his defenses. "Surrender now and I shall keep you in one piece."

Shinji's response was to pull out an arrow that's head was an explosive talisman and filled the tip with prana before nocking it and aiming straight ahead. He let it fly and it approached the opposing wall, before pulling a sudden right angle turn and curving around the bend to reach the magus.

The magus's smirk stayed on his face as he extended his hand and defenses…right until the arrow hit the spiraling defense and ruptured with a deafening explosion. The shock wave and force displaced the air and created an opening that Shinji decided to take the straight path to by shooting through the wall, nocking another paper arrow.

This one has a spiraled head that was designed to make the arrow spin as it flew. It would drill through such meager walls. Closing his right eye and reinforcing the concept of 'sight' in his left—he didn't reinforce both since there was a chance he could blow out one—his vision penetrated the walls and showed the magus, looking disheveled and less than pleased that his defenses were circumvented and focused his defenses to the front, where he was certain that attack would curve from again.

**The arrow was released.**

The air let out a minor shriek as it was spun and forced apart, sprays of drywall and plaster following a wet sound as meat was punched through and a dry shriek escaped from the magus' throat. The drill arrow borrowed through the man's left shoulder after catching him off-guard, having only prepared a defense to the front, where the arrow had curved from before.

Shinji clicked his tongue in mild anger. He was trying to pierce the brain, but the use of reinforcement in only one eye and the multiple walls themselves threw him off. He would have to compensate for that the next time.

The magus thought otherwise as he gave an indecipherable yell and thrust out both hands. If the previous attack was mere gust of wind, then this one was a gale fueled by the power of a cheat sheet known as a Crest.

It was easy for people to ignore the wind on their back, but impossible to run from a wall of death coming from the front. And that's what it was, Shinji recognized as he inscribed a fuwen into the air in front of him with his own mystic code as wind plowed through the rooms and walls, crafting a billowing wave of pressure and shrapnel that consumed everything in its path and turned it into a weapon. Taking the straight path despite the obstacles, it was clear the enemy had lost his temper and decided to resort to killing the younger spellcaster.

The defensive fuwen was torn apart after withstanding roughly a third of the force that blew out half of the top floor. The armor he wore lined with defenses blocked another third. Unfortunately for Shinji, the final third left a large piece of wood embedded in his thigh as he was blown through another wall and into a large study that was now missing the back wall, exposing the cold moonlight that shone down on him.

There was pain, but compared to having circuits engraved on his soul, it was nothing. Still it would hinder his ability to move. Behind his mask, his eyes darted around to find his bow knocked over in the corner and crawled to it, only for a squall to blow him into the wall and keep him pressed there as the magus arrived.

"**You backwater magus**"—he increased the wind pressure and buried Shinji further into the wall that was about ready to give way—"**dare to draw the blood of one whose family is…**"

Shinji tried not to smile behind the mask as the wind drowned out the man's rambling while he applied further pressure as he closed in. Even as he fought not to blackout from the pressure, he saw the magus in front of the missing section of the wall that exposed moonlight into the room. Just where he wanted him. "_Zhu…que!_"

There was a shrill and the shikigami appeared at the opening, blocking the moonlight. The talismans that made up the tail end of its feather seemed to glow an ominous hue as it readied itself to unleash the sole curse it possessed. The swelling magical energy brought the magus's attention to bigger threat, and he stopped his assault in order to shield himself.

"**Rain Hell,**" Shinji ordered, grabbing his bow and plowing through the weakened wall to escape the blast range. "**Curse of the Crimson Plumes!**"

Stating the words of release as he weaved another gravity-lessening fuwen to take the landing, the shikigami unleashed its curse and hell did indeed rain down and sound as though bombs were being dropped. The bombardment was merciless, every blast alternating between pressure and flame as they blew away the floor itself…

* * *

_With Shirou_

**The bone sword was swung down like a blade of execution.**

A reinforced left forearm blocked beneath the wrist made on inhuman bone, halting the execution, as his right fist smashed into the bones of the arm and they crumbled beneath the weight of his conviction. There was no hesitation as he took the blade of bone in hand.

"RAAHHH—" With the stolen weapon he unleashed a fearsome strike towards the closest opposition and pilfered their weapon to arm himself further. His empty hand was now filled with another blade.

**And it felt right.**

The two blades flailed in a frenzy. There was no grace or elegance in the strikes, merely a means to crush and smash bones rather than cleave flesh. A means to survive the overwhelming numbers presented before him. That ceased when one of them grabbed the sword and held it so that its hand that brandished a weapon could be swung.

"**You can have it!**" Shirou abandoned the weapon. His foot shot out to meet the ribcage and mass of the golem. Reinforced, the blow shattered the golem with the sound of bones breaking as he continued to fend for himself, claiming another enemy's weapon as his own.

Fire stirred in his lungs and limbs as he struggled to keep up the _Reinforcement_ and continued to fight. Somehow, it was enough. Somehow, their numbers dwindled to the point where he could see an end.

Of course, Shirou had no idea that Caster had simply decided to test out her new pet project on the magus in light of his efforts and refused to summon more. Instead, watching from her crystal ball, she chanted in a language that held power itself and the bone graveyard that had been built over the course of mere minutes became picked clean as the bones gathered up into the shape of a legendary creature long gone.

The False Dragon of Colchis—a failed attempt by Caster in an effort to once again work her Argon Coin noble phantasm. It took only one swipe of its mighty claw to create a shockwave that tossed the son of the Magus Killer aside like a rag doll and sent him tumbling to the ground after having broken something or other as it approached with a low rumble.

He knew some healing mysteries suitable for combat first aid, courtesy of his father's lessons—being an assassin and all—but he lacked the skill for anything spot on in such a short time. Weaponless and outclassed, Shirou stood on shaky legs regardless in the face of such a creature…

Then came the sound of bombs dropping from the rear of the manor and from the sky fell salvation in the form of a blade that pierced the ground, the white hilt angled up to greet the warrior who had lost his only weapon.

It was obvious that a mere blade would not make a lick of difference against the enemy before him. It was bigger, stronger, and from an age older than him. It was a mystery that Shirou Emiya could not defeat.

"_**I am—" **_However, he could not fail. There was someone who needed to be saved. To do that, the enemy in front of him needed to be defeat. Without knowing the meaning of the words he began to utter, he started the spell so that he could continue down the path he walked.

For that reason, he forced his aching body to grab hold of the sword's hilt as the dragon clawed its way forward. _**"—the bone of my sword…**_**"**

The hammer of a gun came down and the history of the blade was revealed as he attempted to draw from it the same as he did the Tora-Shinai. However, this time the blade demanded his undivided attention and told an untold legend of a king to the magus whose body was made of blades.

A magus and king, who hailed from Wales and bore the title of 'the generous' one, wielded this blade originally before his death and it was stolen from his grave and held onto by the Adeliz family, with the current owner being a magus named Reginald Adeliz. This sword was a mystic code, whose mystery lay hidden in the method of which prana was inserted, only known to the original owner. It bore a single technique, with a few minor variants—one for which the blade was renowned for and only capable of being used by the swords original wielder as he knew the key method to unlocking its potential.

The sword's name: _**Dyrnwyn (White-Hilt).**_

Raising the blade and injecting his prana properly, he declared the name of the technique: _**Urddasol Ffagl**__**(Noble Blaze)!**_

**White fire erupted from the blade as it was swung down and the creation of bones burned.**

The dragon wailed in agony, despite the lack of vocal cords, as flames so hot they melt steel with ease, yet never once touching the flesh of the wielder or anything other than the 'enemy' that must be defeated were unleashed to swallow the faux dragon, consuming every ounce of it.

Victory indeed lied in the sword in his hand that sang at being used once again for a noble purpose.

* * *

_With Caster_

"Master, do you need assistance?" Caster asked as she appeared in front of the man who held her Command Seals. Reginald survived the bombardment, a downpour of explosives that used concussive shockwaves and heat to decimate the section of the upper floor he was on. However, it couldn't stop it all and with the building giving way before his defenses did, he wound up having enough of it dropped on him that some shrapnel had eaten into his skin and buried his legs.

He was not amused. "Kill him. Bring me his corpse. NOW!"

"Master, you've kept my reserves fairly low," she said. "Even if this magus used such filthy tactics rather than an honorable duel, he still outdid you. May I request that you provide me with as much prana as you can?"

Now, here's the thing about magi when they get mad. They make some mistakes and become so focus and driven on a sole thing, they lose sight of the wide perspective. So, he did what she asked without question, seemingly forgetting that despite appearing submissive towards him, she was the _Witch of Betrayal _and he was on her shit-list.

Thus it was no surprise that, while filled with her master's mana, she drew her dagger and plunged into the man's heart. The contract was severed by Rulebreaker and the piercing of his heart gave him a few moments to realize what just happened, before his head slumped down, never to rise again under his own power.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, I really should deal with the children gathered here." Caster sheathed her dagger and looked into her crystal ball as her pet project burned. To be honest, the dragon was a failure because it was too frail and weak, nowhere close to the strength of the real dragon. It was basically an oversized Dragon Tooth Warrior with much more mass to throw around.

Still, to think that young magus somehow managed to figure out the trick to that mystic code—which she admittingly did not reveal to her former Master as he had the audacity to try and command her so brazenly—so suddenly and was starting to make his way towards the building while on his last leg…it couldn't be a coincidence.

Switching to the masked magus, she noticed he was struggling to move as well, clutching his head and chest with some kind of medicinal paste applied to the wound on his thigh to stop the bleeding. It seemed as if there was something off about him…ah, his Magic Circuit seemed to be different from his soul, as if welded on forcibly. How amusing.

Lastly was the girl, who was wandering around the ground floor in an attempt to escape now that someone wasn't watching her, arms still tied around her back. Cute. There was definitely something dark about her, not to mention the fact that her element was such a rarity.

In all honesty, things were better than Caster hoped. Of the three that were present within her territory, at least two could be seen as potential Masters in the upcoming war and a third who could be useful in some manner or another. All she would need to do was bring them under her thrall. How hard could that be, considering two were half-dead on their feet.

She would start with the girl, of course. Out of all of them, she held the greatest interest and the greatest potential. The air distorted around her as she vanished, leaving her former Master's corpse where it laid.

* * *

_With Shirou_

There was nothing left in his body after unleashing such a blaze. He had to resort to using the sword as a makeshift walking stick just to keep advancing. But he wouldn't give up, despite the fact that every single thing in is body ached as he forced himself forward towards the door that led into the manor.

When it opened, he was prepared to face whatever came out to save his kidnapped friend, despite barely being able to stand on his own two feet. Thus it was a pleasant, but unexpected surprise when said friend emerged from the door, hands still tied behind her back and looking just as surprised as he was.

"Senpai…?" Sakura said, shocked at him coming.

"Sakura," he huffed, tension giving out and his body wavering at the sight of her safe…and then, for reasons completely beyond his control, his and Sakura's bodies seized up completely. "Wh…at?"

"_You did well in defeating my dragon,_" a voice carried in the air and reached his ears alone as the air distorted as Caster appeared. "_I shall make good uses of your talents soon._"

The last thing he heard before the world went black, as if his brain was unplugged, was Sakura screaming for him.

* * *

_With Zouken_

Zouken watched in amusement as the son of the Magus Killer went limp and the crack in the girl widened substantially. Still, he couldn't let a mere Servant get above her station. He may as well eliminate her now and speed up his plans.

So, with a snap of the finger, the girl's consciousness was drowned in black.

* * *

_With Caster_

**It all happened in an instant.**

The girl was paralyzed by Caster's arts; only for it to be broken as…well there was no better way to explain it other than that she changed into something _unnatural_, even by one such as her. Black mire poured forth from every orifice, swallowing her and encasing her in a shroud of black with a red-outline that screamed dangerous, like poisonous animals possessed such markings in bright colors to warn potential predators.

**Splat!** After that, something sliced clean through the barrier she possessed around her and impaled her deeply through her abdomen. Caster looked down to see it was one of those tendrils that were almost as thin as paper.

**It hurt. **

Filling her to the brim with an unholy agony that surpassed anything she had known in life, Caster screamed. The single piercing seemed to erode a part of her being, miraculously missing her core by chance…no, not by chance.

The creature was hungry, seeking to devour her inch-by-inch in order to savor her flesh, bone, and essence. It was an abysmal void of emptiness that hungered for an infinite amount to fill it up, a being that would swallow everything on the planet before it swallowed itself into oblivion. With a wet and raspy breath from the creature, something dark and alien to even a magus of ages past, the other tendrils lashed out.

It took a great deal of Caster's pilfered energy to teleport as far away as she could before the razor thin, paper-like tendrils pierced her further, shattering the barrier that formed her territory. Everything she had to spare would be needed to heal from…whatever the thing did to her.

Without knowing what was happening or if she would be chased down and devoured, Caster lost consciousness, right around the time that a man found her outside the steps to the temple.

* * *

_With Shinji_

That disturbing magical energy deafened Shinji, the boundary field surrounding the manor rupturing as something even more horrible took its place. It hammered at his head, constantly battering the connecting point of the soul to the body and his transplanted Magic Circuit. Shinji fell to his knees and clutched his head in agony at being so close to that _thing_.

Bile rose to his throat and expelled itself into his mask as he began to claw at his own flesh to stop that feeling inside his skull; unaware that a familiar of his grandfather was watching him suffer in the presence of the _thing _that was born of the girl until Caster had vanished. Only then did it retreat and the girl returned to her human shell, easing the sledgehammer striking at his mind relentlessly and mercilessly.

It took everything he had to stand again and start moving, the world tilting as each step was unbalanced and his mind still throbbing in pain. Using the words of release in a prana-laced voice, the mask fell and Shinji breathed in the air that was slowly returning to normal rather than a chill that originated from a void. It was like he was walking on knives the entire time as he forced himself to move…until he found Sakura and Shirou unconscious on the front porch of the manor, both still breathing and with minor injuries.

The tension that kept him strung up out of hatred and fear was severed like a string. Relief took away his legs at the sight of both of them, knowing that his best friend and sister still lived and not caring about anything else at the moment. Since the boundary field was shattered and that ominous presence vanished, the thought of safety briefly crossed his exhausted mind and it shut down.

Shinji passed out.

* * *

_With Zouken- Some Time Later_

Zouken looked down at the sight of his grandson before he thrust his cane into Shinji's wounded thigh, which awoke him with a startled scream.

"Son of a bitch!" Shinji grasp where the sealed off wound was, ignoring the sudden bombardment to his senses that he had passed out next to his mask that reeked of dried vomit, to find his grandfather. "Why?"

"Because you're pathetic," Zouken grumbled with a crooked grin on his face. To be honest, he was very pleased with the results of last night when it came to gathering information and testing his control over the _thing_, but he still had to criticize the fact that Shinji failed to make it back on his own while still in enemy territory. "If that magus hadn't been a joke, you would have accomplished nothing."

Shinji ignored the dig as his head still throbbed, expecting nothing less from the aged worm that refused to die. "Sakura…did her and the boy make it out already? Did Sakura say why she was kidnapped and what happened here?"

"The girl is fine," he said gruffly. "As is the boy…I've seen to it that they both were returned to his household by re-hypnotizing those two men who I found out front in their van. They should have been dropped off by now and then have gone about their business.

"As for what happened here, it was the first battle in the upcoming Holy Grail War," he stated, carrying his old body around to the basement of the building and not waiting for Shinji to keep up. "The magus wanted her as a pawn to be used during that war as she is technically the heir. You can ask the girl for details later, for now make yourself useful."

"You knew this was happening?" Shinji asked incredulously as he opened the door to the basement, noting that the enchantments on it had been broken already—probably on the magus' death. Then he remembered who he was talking to, a worm past his prime and had participated in the last four wars. "Nevermind. What are we looking for in particular?"

He shot the boy a glance of disapproval. "Isn't it obvious? We're searching for a clue as to what Servant was summoned."

The younger spellcaster flipped the switch to the lights and revealed the contents of the room. The lab reminded Shinji of an animal shelter, with cages lining one of the walls with dogs. None of them had been turned into familiars yet, and they all looked well-cared for. There other wall was filled with tomes on shelves. On a dais in the back was book that looked old and musty, despite the presence of magecraft preserving it.

"Colchis literature…" Zouken mused darkly as worms surged from his flesh and entered the gaps in the cages, feasting on the dogs that had yet to be turned into familiars with sickening crunches and dying yelps. Shinji did his best not to flinch at the gruesome scene of unnecessary violence. "A spirit from the Age of the Gods summoned as a Caster and commanding warriors made of dragon teeth…Medea, then?"

Shinji made a mental note to look up that name on Wikipedia later. "The Grail War, you're not going to make Sakura fight, are you?"

"That depends on you, boy." Zouken stood in the center of the summoning circle in front of the dais as the worms slithered towards him and tapped it with his cane. "You want the girl to be free, I want the Holy Grail and it just so happens that the catalyst I have procured for your summoning has been found and will be delivered shortly by your aunt. Other than that, I won't provide you with any help, much like I did Kariya."

Shinji's eyes narrowed. Someone who wants the grail as much as him not assisting or taking the stage was disturbingly offsetting. "Why aren't you entering it yourself?"

"There is something off with this war," he admitted, "an anomaly, if you will. I can just as easily wait until the next one to claim the grail, but I _will_ use the girl to create a suitable Master for the next war, and you most certainly will not be around."

Shinji grimaced. Knowing the old worm, he wouldn't hazard a guess as to how he would force Sakura into making him another Matou heir or heiress. Sakura would either have to watch as her child went through what she did or…no, way in hell would Shinji let that happen. He swore he would protect her! He fucking swore he would free her from the old worm's grasp!

But he couldn't go into the war blind.

He needed information. Zouken would keep the information pertaining to the last war to himself, in his mind, since he didn't participate or keep records. But wasn't there at another source he could access?

"The previous war," Shinji started, "was there anyone who survived and would be willing to trade for their memories of the last war?"

"Hmph, a fairly reasonable idea," Zouken consented as he started walking again, "there are only two survivors to the last war, and only one of them will aid you as the other should be the Tohsaka's guardian and maintain impartiality as the moderator of the next war."

Zouken knew about Gilgamesh and that Kotomine would probably keep an eye on things for his own amusement. They were alike in that aspect. But, there was no need to go into specifics, much like he neglected to mention the identity of the other boy as a magus—partly because Shinji's suffering amused him, and partly because it would be another step towards his goal.

Zouken didn't think the boy could win the war. But the girl on the other hand, she would break regardless. As long as she, her sister, her crush, and her brother were involved, it would suffice. If her brother died fighting for the girl, she would break for certain. If her crush or sister were the ones who did it, there would be nothing left to hold her together.

"I shall make the necessary arrangements for a meeting later. For now, go and collect the magus' corpse and anything useful to have your creation bring back home…"


End file.
